Strange Glue
by Cap'n Pirate Monkey
Summary: I would advise you to read the rewrite version, which can be found at my page, because frankly this is badly written! But if you really must read it - it's Reno, it's Yuffie, it's fraught with danger and sexual tension and a whole lot of purple prose.
1. Chapter 1-Freakshow Eyes

STRANGE GLUE

_'It was strange glue that held us together, _

While we both came apart at the seams' 

_"Strange Glue"_

_Catatonia___

CHAPTER ONE: Freak show eyes 

"Is it just me or are your eyes glowing in the dark? God, that's freaky"

Yuffie Kisaragi

_'Don't come outside with your freak show eyes_

_Don't look at me with those freak show eyes_

I'm not like you at all Don't touch me-you must be crazy' 

_"Hunch"_

_Sleeper___

Yuffie Pristina Kisaragi hated flying.

If there was one thing she could totally, completely banish from the world, it would be travel-sickness. Either travel sickness or airline food, which was always a major contributor to the much-loathed ailment.

Of course, when flying the Highwind, there _was_ no airline food, which was a blessing. But it was still flying. And Yuffie still loathed it.

Stationed in her 'pukin' place' out in the hall, she felt her stomach lurch and heave dangerously as the engines roared and whirred noisily below her. As always, she had that nauseous feeling, the sort of feeling where it felt like her stomach was doing cartwheels and handstands and having a jolly old time while her tonsils stuck to the back of her slick, sour throat in anticipation of a torrential upchuck. 

And the worst thing was, they weren't even off the ground yet.

The stench of hot, burning fuel floated up in thick, foul bursts, making her gag. She put her hot forehead, beaded with cold sweat like little stick-on jewels, on the cold, slightly rusty metal of the handrail and groaned inwardly, begging for the sudden burst of nausea to pass.

It didn't pass, but settled a little into an uncomfortable feeling prowling around her churning stomach.

The whirring of the engine suddenly went up an octave, reaching an unbearably high crescendo. '_Great_' thought Yuffie, head pressed to the handrail, not caring that there would be a red pressure mark across her forehead when she took it away, '_Not only do I feel totally crappy, I now have a major headache'_

As the Highwind prepared to take off, she prepared herself for her own take off procedure. It didn't involve seatbelts or speeches from the pilot. No, her pre-flight ritual was pretty simple. 1: Close your eyes. 2: Grab a bag 3: Stick head in bag and finally 4: Wait. 

Cloud had often given her speeches on how to avoid travel-sickness. Numerous speeches. But how the hell was she supposed to concentrate on what the sexy, spiky-haired vigilante was saying when she felt so damn ill? It was just one big, dumb catch-22. 

_Feel ill. Beg for someone to tell you how not to feel ill. Someone does. Feel too ill to understand. Feel ill. _

She crouched down, closing her lilac-tinted, grey eyes as she felt blindly and clumsily for one of the paper bags Cid always stashed there in a rare act of sympathy. Actually, Yuffie thought as she fumbled for a bag, shaking with nausea, it probably wasn't sympathy. It was probably the fact that the Highwind was his pride and joy, and he couldn't stand to see it puked on.

Yuffie groaned a little as her stomach did another violent flip. Take-offs and landings were always the absolute pits as far as her illness was concerned. And to make it worse, she'd had this _massive_ breakfast, about three-quarters of which would come back to say hello at some point in the flight.

Suddenly, the engines died with a strange, wavering whine. From down below, she could distantly hear the clang of metal against metal, followed by someone yelling in a loud, rough voice "HELL!" No doubt it was Cid.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she realised that the flight would be cancelled, or at very least delayed. This was a very good thing. The paper-bag was crumpled in her hand in the hope she wouldn't have to use it.

There was the sound of rattling footsteps on the ever-noisy walkway that bridged the chasm of the engine-room. She didn't have the energy or concern to turn round and see who it was, so she crouched, inhaling the strange sweet-sour smell of the metal containers that served as the rudimentary walls of her 'pukin' place'. Praying with all her might that the flight would be cancelled, she began to hum a slow tune under her breath, avoiding doing anything that resembled moving in case it should unsettle the nausea that appeared to have disappeared.

"Hey, brat! Get your skinny ass up to the deck PRONTO!" 

Yuffie's heart suddenly gave a massive jump and tried to touch her tonsils, but didn't quite get there, settling for the middle of her oesophagus instead. There it lodged, hammering away in a futile attempt to escape. She span around, blood pounding in her temples so loudly it resembled the rhythmic drum-beat that always seemed to be echoing around the rusty-orange, barren cliffs of Cosmo Canyon.

Standing with an extremely fed-up look on his face and the obligatory cigarette hanging loosely out of his mouth was Cid. He reeked of engine oil, and had black smears all over his face and greasy blue jacket, including on his cigarette. He was tapping his foot impatiently.

"CID YOU OLD FART!" Yuffie bellowed, suddenly feeling nausea rise in her throat but not caring. "YOU FRIGHTENED SIX

 DIFFERENT TYPES OF ARSE OUT OF ME!"

Cid reached up and tried to wipe a smear of black, viscous liquid off of his cheek, making it worse in the process. "No need to swear, brat, I heard 'em all before. Now, get that bony little _butt_ of yours up to deck, 'cos Cloud wants a word"

"Brat? Bony _butt_? Oooh…" Yuffie began to fume, but instead of getting angry and losing her temper, she breathed in deeply (partly to calm her down and partly to stop that queasiness from getting worse) and did what she was told. 

It was then that Cloud dropped his bombshell. He was standing casually as usual at the very front of the Highwind, looking out of the window in deep thought. Strangely, his girlfriend Tifa wasn't flanking him as usual. Yuffie was quite disappointed, as Tifa always cheered her up when she was down, and right now she felt very down. _'Never mind'_ Yuffie thought, studying Cloud's form with interest. '_Maybe I can get Cloud talking instead'_

"Cloud…?" Yuffie began, with the much loathed (by her, anyway) 'little-girl' voice she couldn't help adopting whenever she was forced to talk to Cloud. It wasn't her fault. There was just something about Cloud that made her go kind of giddy, and as a result her voice sort of wavered a bit and went higher than normal (if that was humanly possible)

"Mm?" he turned round, a calm look printed on his face, his liquid blue eyes seemingly endless in their depth. She gulped audibly and looked at her feet, putting her arms behind her back like she was a little girl. 

"Cid said you wanted to talk to me-was it about the Chocobo?" she said hopefully, knowing full well that Cloud didn't want to talk about any Chocobos. "Cos, you know, I remembered to feed Perabo this time, so he shouldn't try and bite your arm off again"

Cloud nodded absently and folded his muscular arms, the sleeves of his black t-shirt crumpling a little around the gentle curves of his triceps.

"There've been reports of a Jenova-like creature around the old Northern Crater and Gaea's cliffs," he said in a brisk, businesslike voice. Yuffie nodded, a little disappointed at the hurried way he had dismissed any casual conversation, but listened politely, to make herself seem a little more agreeable and a little less brattish. 

"I'm sending out a couple of parties to investigate. So far, I've sent Vincent and Elena out to the base of the cliffs, and Cid and Red inside. You're going to investigate the crater itself. Are you alright with that?" the haste in his voice made her think it was wise not to waste time thinking over her answer. She fumbled over her words for a second, and then it came out.

"On my own?" she squeaked. It was the first thing that came into her head, and she immediately regretted saying it. She closed her lilac-tinged eyes and waited for the patronism she knew would follow.

Cloud smiled in an annoyingly paternal way. Yuffie sighed internally as she realised he was belittling her again. She hated being treated like a child, especially by someone like Cloud, but she was willing to grin and bear it if it would make her seem any more bearable.

"Of course I'm not sending you alone, Yuffie" he said calmly, doing everything in his power short of patting her on the head and giving her a lollipop to make her feel small. "I'm pairing you up with Reno"

Yuffie forced an amiable smile, but inside she was fuming. Reno? Was Cloud _completely_ insane? Reno, the beer-swilling, innuendo-making, belching, obnoxious ex-Turk? The 23 year old with the mind of a 15 year old? The man who still referred to her by many unpleasant aliases, such as 'Babe', 'Kid', 'Pest' and, worst of all, 'Brat'. 

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Cloud asked, noticing the way she had shrivelled at the mention of Reno's name. Yuffie looked up with wide, steel-coloured eyes. She knew what she wanted to say: she wanted to tell Cloud, in no uncertain terms, that he could stick his mission where the sun don't shine if he didn't pair her with someone else. Hell, even the silent, ominous Rude would make better company.

"Yes, I'm fine, thanks Cloud" she said robotically, smiling artificially.

And so it began.

* * * * * * 

_'We all had our reasons to be there,_

_We all had a thing or two to learn,_

_We all needed something to cling to,_

_So we did'_

_"Forgiven"_

Alanis Morrisette 

"Hey, kid, pass the map, will ya?"

Yuffie didn't even bother reprimanding Reno for the use of the word 'kid', and obediently passed him the map to save anymore useless bickering. They had been dropped off outside the crater about ten minutes ago. An always-grumpy Cid and the newly fixed Tiny Bronco had provided the transport, and they were now standing on a bleak icy ledge overlooking the rocky circle of green-tinged blackness that was the Northern Crater. They had been arguing about who should hold the PHS for a good seven minutes. And, of course, Reno had won.

"Can't trust a girl like you with directions, y'know?" Reno added, taking the map from Yuffie and munching absently on the end of his pen. He reached up and pushed his ever-present sunglasses further up on his head, pushing down a couple of unruly, fiery red spikes.

"I hope the ink splats all over your skinny face" Yuffie said maliciously. She stood in the chilly wind, shuffling from side to side in a pitifully futile effort to keep warm, watching Reno with contempt nestled in the back of her large steely-grey eyes.

After a few 'hmms', Reno pulled the well-chewed pen out of his mouth and, reaching up automatically to flick his ruby red hair out of his aquamarine eyes, pinpointed a small area on the map, circling it with his blue ballpoint.

"We" he announced grandly, looking at Yuffie knowledgably "are here" he jabbed a thin finger at the smudged blue mark and looked up at Yuffie for approval. Yuffie just scowled.

"Thanks for stating the absolute obvious, Reno" Yuffie said sourly, shivering fiercely in the biting cold wind. She suddenly wished she hadn't insisted on wearing shorts. And a little tank top. Her just-below-shoulder-length, dark chocolate-coloured hair blew out behind her at times, taking precious warmth away from her thin shoulders. She looked over at Reno, wearing his blue Turks suit as usual, although the organisation was long dead. It was like he, Elena and Rude were trying to preserve their proud Turks heritage. Or maybe it was just some twisted ode to the late Tseng. In any case, Reno seemed warm enough, despite the fact that he, as always, had forgotten to do up the first three buttons of his shirt. He refused to wear a tie like the introverted Rude always did, and always wore baggy trousers. Perhaps this was to disguise his thinness. Nobody really knew whether Reno was thin or just plain lanky, but judging by the way his clothes never seemed to fit, Yuffie was willing to bet that he was as skinny as a runner bean. 

"Shall we go then?" Reno gestured down into the void below. Yuffie looked from the hole, to him, then back to the hole with a strange, pensive look that really didn't belong on her normally cheerful face.

"How do we get down, genius?" she asked disdainfully, staring wide-eyed into the endless black with more than a hint of dread.

"We parachute down." Reno shrugged indifferently, "We…I mean, I'm…not carrying these ridiculously heavy parachute packs for my own benefit" He sat down on the very edge of the freezing stone cliff. He stretched his long legs off the ledge and into the inky blackness, so that his black shoes blended in with their background. He looked up inquisitively at Yuffie, who was still weighing up the pros and cons of being stuck down a dark, probably smelly hole with an obnoxious redheaded male.

"Hey, pest, you coming, or am I gonna have to drag you?" he asked, his sharp, always caustic tone immediately irritating Yuffie. 

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Yuffie said indignantly, taking a tentative step towards the edge. There were probably loads of gross things still in that hole from when they last left it-corpses and dead things and, worst of all, gross, slimy little beasties. Add to that the very real possibility of being stuck down there with Reno…

Reno watched her as she stood, thinking. Two years of growing up didn't seem to have done much for her personality-still the hot-headed, irresponsible little brat she'd always been-but to look at, she had changed quite a bit. Her hair, once short, spiky, always messy, streaked with stray blonde strands here and there, was now reasonably long, dark, silky and, although windswept, soft-looking. Her lean teenage frame, no longer tattooed with the various marks and bruises of a tomboy, had lost the scrawniness. True, she was still thin, but her arms were no longer stick-like and bony, and neither were her legs. Her round face still had that oddly endearing impish aura of her childhood, but now, an eighteen-year-old young woman, her formerly childlike face had matured into that of a budding adult. Her once comically large eyes had narrowed a little, like proper Wutaian eyes were meant to. She still had a flat stomach, which he noticed was covered in gooseflesh. In fact, all of her exposed body parts were goose-pimpled. She must be freezing.

"Listen" Reno said in a parental tone, swinging his legs like a child to the rhythmic whine of the bitter wind. "I can see you're totally freezing your underwear off out here, so why don't we make this quick. Get down there, find the thing, get out…" Reno shrugged "Who knows. Cloud might even give you some extra pocket money so you can buy some warmer clothes?"

"Cram it, babe" Yuffie responded pleasantly, taking a phrase out of Reno's extensive book.

Reno arched his thin red eyebrows, shook his head with a surprised grin, and rubbed his nose unconsciously. He patted the cold stone next to him, and, adopting a more charming tone (which was still oozing patronisation from every orifice) said "Come on, babe, sit your butt down here and we'll get goin'"

Yuffie looked apprehensively at the crater. Two years ago, when they'd come here the first time, she'd been so sick on the Highwind that she hadn't noticed just how dark and foreboding and downright scary the hole looked.

"Look, Reno, I really _really _don't want to go down there. I mean it, really" she said, without taking her eyes off the abyss below her. "There's gonna be all sorts of gross things down there and, well, I'm not really up to seeing them right now"

"Ah, don't panic kid" Reno said cheerily. He didn't seem to suffer from any sort of vertigo or big-black-hole-o-phobia, and, as a result, seemed to have put Yuffie's fear down to a childish 'fear of the dark and icky bugs'. "I've got my nightstick, you've got that frisbee thing, I think that if any 'gross things' as you so eloquently put it try to attack us, we'll be able to defend ourselves"

"But…" Yuffie stopped when she realised that a) she wasn't going to win, and b) she was making herself sound brattish and immature again. Sighing irritably, she plopped herself down next to the ex-Turk and pushed her own long, slender legs over the side, allowing gravity to pull them. The more she dangled them over, the more she decided that she really didn't want to go down.

She was vaguely aware of Reno trying to sneakily tie the parachute pack to her back, and she snapped her head round to face him.

"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded as he lightly clipped everything together with his long, dextrous fingers.

"Preparing you" was his reply. The wind was rushing through his crimson hair, and Yuffie was suddenly very glad she hadn't sat on his other side. This way, the taller, slightly broader Reno was blocking the wind off and allowing her a little warmth. She looked up at his hair, and marvelled at the way that, in spite of the tons of gel he fed it every morning, it still looked soft.

As if he'd noticed what she was staring at, he pulled his sunglasses out of his hair, allowing soft, un-gelled locks of flame red hair to spill over his forehead where they were swept back by the rough hands of the wind. "Secure any loose articles, kid," he said, sounding like a ride operator on the Speed Square at the Gold Saucer. "We're going in"

"Stop being so damn cheesy" Yuffie scowled, trying to hide her more than obvious fear. She took one last glance down at the hole, then turned to Reno again.

"You go first" she ordered.

Reno grinned, showing off perfectly white teeth. "How 'bout _you_ go first?" he said cheekily, before, without any warning, he reached out both of his long arms and shoved her off the edge.

Yuffie came to a rough landing in a dark clearing made up of assorted mineral rocks and a dripping grey trickle that was so pathetic calling it a 'waterfall' would have been an insult to the real thing. She allowed the soft blue folds of the parachute to cover her like a blanket. Though the biting wind had been left behind in the open air of the cliffs, she had been chilled to the bone by the parachute jump.

"Parachute jump. Huh. More like parachute _push_" Yuffie grumbled angrily as she burrowed her way out of the parachute. She shivered as her already freezing body met the cold air swirling sluggishly around the dark cavern, and drew the parachute around her bare shoulders like a cape, the material sliding smoothly over the graceful curve of her shoulders. The air down here was stale and stank of some unnameable substance, which Yuffie named in one.

"Smells like arse" she said observantly, testing the air with her small, wrinkled nose. She scanned the interior of the cave. The walls were a spectrum of blues and greens and the occasional purple, each rock glimmering in the weak glare of the bright sun far, far above. The resulting effect was that the cave was speckled with shining lights rather like the disco ball Yuffie had begged for at the wedding of Barret and Aeris' adoptive mother Elmyra a year ago. She remembered when she had persuaded an already drunk Reno to sneak her drinks from the bar. She had gotten totally drunk, and had spent the rest of the evening chasing the circling squares of light emanating from the disco ball with a tipsy Cid who had since refused to mention the incident. Barret in a suit-that had been a laugh. He had looked so uncomfortable, fidgeting like a child forced into his Sunday best. Cid, Cloud and Rude all made the effort and looked very neat and respectable in black suits, even if Cid did have a cigarette at all times. Reno had looked like…well, like Reno. No matter who nagged, he refused point-blank to wear a tie, although he had made the benevolent gestures of doing up all of his shirt buttons minus the top one_ and _leaving his sunglasses at home. And then Vincent…everyone had been so shocked to see him dressed normally that they were willing to ignore the fact he was wearing the wrong colour suit. He hadn't been wearing his mask-like bandana, and as a result had looked both intimidating and very attractive at the same time. His quick garnet eyes hadn't missed a thing, although most of the time they had looked deceptively bored. His long raven hair had been tied back in a loose ponytail, and he had been a perfect gentleman all night, paying compliments to _everyone_. He had even declared that Yuffie was 'a very pretty young woman'-even though he was slightly drunk and, directly after paying the compliment, he had turned to Tifa and, for the rest of the night, had addressed her as 'Yuffie'.

Of course, Elena, Tifa, Yuffie and Marlene had to wear dresses. Yuffie had to admit that she hadn't minded too much, even if she had felt 'kinda odd'. Marlene, the flower girl, had looked very cute in her little lilac dress. Tifa, inadvertently showing off her voluptuous curves and her beautiful brown hair in her lilac dress had looked stunning-but then, Tifa was one of those women who would probably still look great dressed in a mailbag. Elena, with her long blonde hair, big brown eyes and slender figure which, as Rude had observed, had 'curves where there oughta be curves', had also looked beautiful, even if she had got totally sloshed and attempted to do the can-can on the slippery bar, falling off and nearly squashing the neatly-groomed Red. 

And then there had been herself.

Yuffie had looked at herself in the mirror before she had left, and, with the elegant-looking Tifa marvelling at the great job she had done with Yuffie's then short hair, had seen something she wasn't at all happy with. A skinny little brat with a big, fat face, eyes that looked like saucers and consequently looked dumb, thin arms with bony shoulders…in short, something to rival Jenova in the ugly stakes, especially in a dress. In fact, while the other two women had been showered with compliments galore, all she had received was a slap of the backside from Reno…and he had always been especially fond of this gesture, so that hadn't exactly dispelled her complex.

But now wasn't the time to worry about such matters. She wanted to find Reno, find the 'monster' (or hopefully, they wouldn't find it) and go home to a nice warm bath and something to eat, away from the cold wind, the gross things, and this freaky place.

Suddenly, she heard an ungainly thump echo from the cavern next to hers. She assumed it was Reno. He hadn't jumped too far from her, so theoretically he should land quite close to her.

Cinching her parachute/cape arrangement around her shoulders, she waddled awkwardly to the jagged hole in the wall that served as the door to the dimly lit cave and peered in. 

She immediately noticed that the only way Reno could have landed in the cave was through a small hole in the far end of the roof through which a column of light like a pillar shone. Otherwise, the rest of the huge-seeming cavern was pitch black.

"Reno?" Yuffie asked timidly, her voice echoing loudly. She suddenly wished she had insisted on being teamed up with Tifa, or even Vincent. Hell, even Barret would do if it meant keeping away from dark caves. She reached her hand out and ran her hand across the walls, which were thick with some viscous substance. She was dimly aware of a faint dripping noise somewhere in the cavern. Probably another one of those miserable grey waterfalls.

"Grossness!" Yuffie shrieked automatically, wiping the unidentifiable stuff on her shorts. As she did so, she was suddenly aware of something else breathing. She looked up cautiously, her breath caught in her throat.

A pair of luminous green Mako eyes suddenly blinked open and looked up at her from the darkness. 

Yuffie's heart again leapt into her throat and began drumming loudly and erratically. She gulped it down into her chest again, her heart hammering so hard against her ribcage she thought that if it didn't burst out then she would keel over. Her own eyes widened until they were at risk of falling out of their sockets. She breathed in deeply and told herself to calm down.

'_It's Reno'_ she told herself. _'Reno has green eyes, remember? It's just Reno trying to freak you out like the silly immature asshole he is'_

"Is it just me or are your eyes glowing in the dark? God, that's freaky" she asked, trying to sound relaxed although she was actually terrified, shuffling closer to Reno's disembodied eyes and dragging her heavy parachute cape behind her. It made a strange hissing noise as it was pulled along the gritty stone floor, which she ignored. 

"Reno?" she enquired again.

Reno didn't say anything. The big green orbs of his eyes blinked slowly and deliberately. Perhaps he was hurt. Perhaps he was just being obnoxious. Yuffie was willing to put her money on option 2.

"Reno, are just you gonna sit there…" Yuffie trailed off as she reached out and felt something slimy, sticky and unanimously gross. Pulling her hand away as if it had burnt her, she yelped as another three Mako eyes opened up below the first two and a low, rumbling growl echoed from the pit of the creature's belly.

"Sh…sh…shhh…RENO!!!" Yuffie screamed, her heart taking a huge, painful lurch as she instinctively leapt back. She stood in wide-eyed terror, facing the thing with five eyes and trying desperately to find a way out. Unfortunately, she lacked the somewhat odd ability to see in the dark like Vincent Valentine, so she just turned back to the creature and whimpered like a child in a thunderstorm. 

Just to add to her terror, the seemingly passive creature before her uttered another low rumble before, with a noise like ripping paper, the eyes suddenly rose a few storeys and blinked, one after the other, down at the helpless little ninja mockingly. 

Yuffie screamed again, more shrilly and frightened than the first. This wasn't one of the gross things normally found on the upper levels of the cavern. This was far grosser. This was…

'The monster, the thing, the mutation, Jenova mark II' Yuffie's mind serenaded before allowing her to pull her seemingly rooted feet off the floor. With a loud, echoing yelp, she got up and, not knowing where the exit was, ran towards the light. The monster's many green eyes followed her, taking in the wonderfully mixed scent of her pulsing blood, fear and adrenaline, drinking it like a cheap narcotic. It was entranced for a moment, watching the fleeing ninja. Yuffie pumped her legs as fast and hard as she could, although they felt heavier than bars of lead, and her muscles were so tense they were on the point of snapping. Each breath felt like inhaling a lungful of red-hot splinters. Hot tears of fright welled up in the corners of her eyes, obscuring her vision into one big grey smudge. She blinked it all away and took a shuddering breath. As she made a final burst towards the light, realising that after she made it there, there was nowhere else to go, she felt the cruel, thin, wiry tentacles of the creature close around her foot tightly and send her flying towards the floor. 

With a heavy thud and a sharp stab of pain, she hit the flat stone of the floor and, not knowing what else to do, cried out. She frantically kicked her foot, flailing her arms like a drowning swimmer, and, with no other option, finally turned to face her assailant.

It took her a full minute to realise that the creature was still stationed in the middle of the room, blinking its massive green eyes slowly in a form of open-eyed catatonia. As she watched, it moved forward a little with a noise that sounded like the clicking of hooves.

Yuffie gulped in a lungful of cold, crisp air to get her head working straight again. She was dimly aware that as she pulled her foot free, she left her yellow sneaker in the tight grip of the parachute strings, but she didn't care. Quietly, she backed up towards the light, not knowing what she would do once she got there…

As she scooted towards the light, never once taking her eyes off the slowly advancing monster in front of her, she suddenly felt the ground disappear underneath her backside and, with another helpless scream, she plunged down, away from the creature, with one shoe, into the dark, dank depths of the earth.

_The second serious fanfic I've ever written-the first was a little, rather obscure vignette about Yuffie and Vincent, which I wrote about three years back when I was 12. Sadly it was lost in the mists of time…or rather, the pit of my bedroom. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of a tale inspired to a large degree by Catalina's 'Sink to the bottom with you' (I highly recommend it) Please mail and let me know what you think so far (TioRankP@hotmail.com)_

_Thanx, TIO_


	2. Chapter 2-Humbled

CHAPTER 2-'Humbled'

_"You could be stuck down here with Barret. What would he do to entertain you? Scratch his ass?" _

_Reno_

'If only I could meet the maker And I am fascinated By the spiritual man 

_I am humbled by his humble nature'_

"All I really want" Alanis Morrisette 

Unknown to the terrified Yuffie, a very dishevelled Reno had landed (minus his trademark sunglasses) next to the multi-eyed thing's lair, up on a small, jagged ledge jutting out from the ice-glazed inner walls of the crater. He'd climbed down the wall (with some difficulty, as he couldn't get the parachute straps undone and, as a consequence, had to drag it all the way down) He'd passed the little ceiling entrance to the lair–the one Yuffie had assumed that he'd parachuted through. Reno had ignored this, instead favouring, in true Reno style, the hard way-a sort of natural staircase down which trickled a constant dribble of stagnant grey-green liquid. Reno guessed this was just melting snow.

The path was slippery, and Reno almost lost his footing quite a few times, but managed to keep his balance and nerve all the way down to a thin rocky trail scored by the hand of some huge amateur carver and his blunt knife into the side of the icy grey cliff. Reno had climbed along this, not suffering the slightest bit of vertigo as he sidestepped along the narrow path, overlooking a god-knows-how-big drop into the thick, choking blackness of the abyss below. 

This had led him to the cavern directly beneath the creature's lair, a dark, blue mineral-walled cave with very weak light pouring from tiny cracks in the ceiling. The ceiling that served as the floor to Yuffie's landing site. It connected to the beast's lair by a large crack in the roof.

Reno was standing under this hole, looking at the gritty, dusty grey floor in unusually deep thought, trying to determine whether to try climbing up or carry on going down. He was not at all sure where Yuffie was, whether she had landed and gone down by herself, or whether looking for him somewhere on the upper floors, in the pitch black, and he was disturbed to find that he actually was worried. What if she ran into the 'Thing'? He knew that, as good a fighter as she truly was, she would need his help to defeat anything on the lower floors. Dragon Zombies, with their formidable Pandora's Box attack, were hard enough to serve as bosses in their own right, and if this 'Thing' was anything like Jenova, or at least, her final incarnations, it was unquestionable that Yuffie would need his help.

She _was_ only a kid, after all.

Reno was just about to examine the dimly-lit exit to his left when the faint blue glow from the lair above was suddenly cut off and accompanied with a horrific, ear-splitting shriek. His head snapped up in alarm, and he saw Yuffie hurtling, bottom-first, towards him.

Before he could do anything, he instinctively stretched out his arms and caught her as she plummeted. She landed heavily with a cry, wrenching his taut arms almost out of their sockets. He automatically wrapped his arm around the gentle curve of her smooth back and the other under her slim thighs. She drew her knees up, pulling his hand between the warm flesh of her inner knees where it rested. She was trembling so hard that the Oritsuru hanging from her belt kept jabbing Reno in the side. Her turbulent grey eyes were tightly squeezed shut, as if she didn't want to see what sort of gross monster had her in its evil, merciless clutches this time…

"Yuffie" Reno said softly, pressing the callused scar tissue of his cheek against her soft, silky hair. He inhaled the sweet smell of her jasmine-scented shampoo, relieved that his arms hadn't popped out of their sockets. As he did a mental inventory of himself, checking that all his body parts were still there, he looked down at the quaking ninja in his arms.

Yuffie flinched at the sound of his voice. In her irrational, panic-stricken state, the soothing, almost affectionate tone of Reno's quite deep voice sounded like the snarl of some horrible fiend from the bowels of the earth. His soft touch felt like the crushing limbs of some behemoth from the very pits of hell…Yuffie opened one of her lilac-tinted eyes…just a little, just wide enough to see whether it really was Reno or a monster adopting his voice.

Reno's unruly, flame red locks and glowing aquamarine eyes came into view, burning brightly in the darkness like the fluorescent streetlights of his perpetually shadowy hometown Midgar. His hazy outline doubled, tripled, and finally settled down into one Reno. His mouth was set into a thin line of grim concentration, as if he was in pain. The vivid heat of his blazing hair only served to make him look paler, an effect enhanced by the cold beauty of his eyes. For a moment, Yuffie was lost in those two deep pools of liquid Mako, each one framed with a forest of long, dark brown eyelashes. She watched with fascination how they rippled and flowed like the mysterious liquid they were infused with. She had never felt safer in her entire life than at that moment, adrift in her own thoughts and curled up in the arms of someone older and stronger than herself.

"Yuffie!" Reno said, a little more sharply, voice edged with worry. The girl appeared to be in state of shock and was in some sort of open-eyed coma, which was an unnerving sight. Trying hard to keep his balance with her added weight, he looked down at the delicate-looking nymph nestled in his scarred arms. She lay huddled against his lean body like a baby, looking up into his concerned eyes, completely trusting of him now she knew who he was. Reno blinked slowly; accepting the situation, and wondered how she could nestle there knowing she was in the arms of an abomination like himself, human or otherwise.

'_But she doesn't know your past. Like everyone else, she sees you as just a regular man_' Reno told himself as she allowed him to press her left cheek against the soft folds of his wrinkled blue jacket. '_If she knew your past, if they all knew it…you're just another Vincent Valentine. Alone. Nobody cares about you. And, unlike Vincent, you _do_ care about their opinions'_  

He placed his lips by the trembling girl's ear "You're gonna be alright" he whispered softly, placing his hand on her right cheek and softly stroking her smooth olive skin with his thumb. The way he was holding her, the way he was whispering to her gently…it was a painful reminder of his last night with _her_…the woman who'd died for him and everyone else…the woman who left so suddenly that she didn't even have time to say goodbye... 

The part that hurt worse, the part that cut deep into his agonised heart, was the fact that she had been the only woman other than his drunkard of a mother that had ever truly loved him. 

She had been so trusting of him, so blindly loyal and incurably naïve. '_Just like Yuffie_ _is now_' Reno thought grimly, looking away from the frightened girl in his arms.

She'd lied, pretended she didn't care about him. It was the only way she'd remain safe and out of Shinra's greedy clutches, the clutches that wanted to maim her and drain her of all her life and power. 

Reno had been, and still would be willing to lay his life down for her… if she was still alive. She'd lied for him, and him for her. He had lied to his best friends, Rude and Elena. Even Tseng, the only man who came close to loving her as much as Reno had, was fed lie upon lie in order to keep her safe. 

She did the same. Her friends had always been on the alert for danger, and the Turks were one of the biggest threats. She'd lied, thrown them off Reno's scent. When their paths inevitably crossed, she'd try her hardest to avoid conflict. They both worked so hard to keep each other free.

And then it had all been obliterated in one cruel stroke. Gone in a flash. All his devotion, all that lying for nothing. She had died, and he hadn't even been there to say goodbye.

Yuffie's quiet whimpering jolted him out of his morbid train of thoughts. Trying hard to wipe her picture out his mind where it was opening all sorts of wounds, he moved his hand away from her cheek and loosened his tight grip a little. She had scared him too. Maybe that was why he'd held her like that. He hadn't chosen to do it. It had been like some kind of underlying instinct. Maybe he too had craved the comfort and contact of another human to ease his fright.

Maybe there was something more to it.

"Jesus, kid, you scared the livin' crap outta me!" he murmured softly. "You're gonna be alright" Reno tried to focus on the steady, pulsing throb that had settled all the way up his right arm. Maybe it would help him forget about his bleak past…for now, anyway "What happened to you? You're shaking like crazy"

Yuffie opened her tumultuous grey eyes fully. The shock of coming so close to a creature that could easily have disembowelled her in one blow still lingered like a bruise. "I don't…I mean, I…my foot hurts" she said fretfully, her arms creeping around Reno's neck, drawing herself back to his warmth, warmth which, to her, meant safety. 

Reno was both stung and taken aback by this gesture. He'd released her because he was expecting her to hurl a volley of abuse in his direction and insist that he let her go. The last thing he'd anticipated was for her to reach out again. He regarded her with curious turquoise eyes and, for a short moment, it was not Yuffie there, huddled against his lean frame, but _her…_

Desperate not to return to Memory Lane, he turned to her injured foot, shaking his head as if he had a hangover. One of her trademark yellow sneakers was missing, and all that remained was a shredded sock, probably once white, but now a dirty grey, streaked with scarlet.

"Looks like you've cut it" Reno observed pragmatically, almost coldly. "I'm gonna have to put you down to look at it…Yuffie?" he took his arm out from under her drawn-up knees, expecting her to unlock her arms from around his neck and put her good foot on the ground, but she didn't. As he let go, she frantically scrambled further up him, hooking her long, slim legs around his torso until she looked like a koala bear climbing a tree. She whimpered loudly, pressing her face against the warm, slightly scratchy fabric of his dark blue jacket. 

'_Please don't_' he pleaded silently '_this hurts so bad. It hurts inside'_

Reno sighed. "Look, you're gonna have to let go of me" he said with endless patience, trying to hide his mental anguish. 

Yuffie looked up at him, slightly bewildered at his tolerance of her. At any other time, he'd have dropped her straight on her backside with a libellous comment. She put his uncharacteristic patience down to an understanding of her absolute terror, and concluded that this was the reason he had dropped his normal 'an-insult-a-minute' demeanour.

Reno was hurting still, but if she didn't let go, he would have to drop her on her arse, something he didn't really feel like doing, but if it came to it…

"Yuffie" he said long-sufferingly, reaching up with his free arm and flicking the end of her small, delicate nose to get her attention. "Yuffie, please get your ass on the floor _now_ before I drop you"

Reluctantly, still shaking, Yuffie put her good foot on the floor and sat down shakily, stretching her bad foot out in front of her, suspending it millimetres off the dusty stone floor. She was distantly aware that she was sitting in a cold puddle, but didn't care. As long as she didn't Reno out of her sight, she didn't care. Yuffie was in the frame of mind where she would have gladly danced a naked samba if it meant being transferred to a less scary location. She would have willingly inserted red-hot pokers in her ears until they met in the middle while bathing in a vat of cold baked beans (another pet hate of hers) if it meant freedom. 

Hell, she would even be willing to ride the Highwind.

"Reno" she announced as steadfastly as possible for a girl in her state, placing her palm flat on the floor as support. "I want to go home"

"Hard cheese, babe" Reno said indifferently, looking down at the alarmed, now damp ninja. His wall of protection was back up, the 'obnoxious young male' personality he always adopted to make sure he didn't endear himself to others in his childish fear of being hurt again. The moment of tenderness they had shared a few moments ago had been shoved roughly to the back of his mind.  "I don't wanna be here either. I could be home, getting drunk, irritating the hell out of Elena…" he shrugged "but I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles, huh?"

"There was a thing," Yuffie blurted loudly, shifting a little in the cold puddle. Maybe if she explained everything, he would see the metaphorical light (there wasn't much light to see down here, after all) Then he'd take her home, and she could sleep knowing her father Godo and his lackeys were watching over her.

"A thing…" Reno trailed off, smiling his perpetually impish smile "Sorry, kid, that's kinda vague. What sort of thing are we talking about?"

"A big, five-eyed gross thing" Yuffie said helpfully. "Tall. I thought it was you at first"

"Oh, thanks for the vote of confidence babe" Reno said sarcastically. Talking to Yuffie without cracking at least _one_ joke or making at least _one_ sarcastic comment was a physical impossibility for the impulsive redhead. He was trying his absolute hardest not to make her any more miserable than she already was without getting as close as they had been a few moments ago-after all, if he continued being his normal brash, abrasive self, who was to say that she wouldn't throw an almighty strop and abandon him to his fate down here, on his own, in the dark, with only the monsters and his own mental torment for company…?

"I didn't mean it as an insult" Yuffie said apologetically "It was just it had these green eyes-they were kinda beautiful, almost hypnotic, y'know? Just like your eyes"

Reno widened the two objects in question. "You think my eyes are beautiful?" he asked inquisitively, 

'_She told you that_' Reno's subconscious reminded '_She said those exact words, in her beautiful voice with her beautiful face, she said your eyes were beautiful, and then…'_

"Uhh…" Yuffie faltered, realising just what she had said. She looked at the floor, her face burning red with embarrassment. 

Reno was glad for the interruption. Yuffie was a totally different person when she was afraid.  He wasn't used to receiving compliments. People were supposed to tell him what an idiot he was and how he was nothing but a lazy, insignificant slum kid with an attitude problem the size of Midgar. People, especially young women like Yuffie, were supposed to shy away from his tall, scarred frame, flaming hair and deep, unearthly Mako eyes. 

Of course, _she_ never had. And Yuffie's comment had hit him where it hurt.

Yuffie flushed. She actually did think his eyes were beautiful, but that little piece of information was supposed to be kept hidden, along with her feelings for Cloud and the way she secretly admired the stoic, mysterious entity they knew as Vincent.

'_Me and my big mouth'_ she sighed to herself as she opened her mouth for an explanation. 

Sensing her discomfort, Reno crouched down and, with incredible gentleness for a man with his temperament, pulled the dirty sock away from her injured foot. He peeled it away from the wound softly, making sure no scraps of shredded cotton were left.

"Ow!" Yuffie squeaked, trying to hide the fact that she was deeply embarrassed. "Careful, _careful_!" 

Reno nodded a silent apology and discarded the sock over his left shoulder. Taking her slender foot in his hands, he examined the injury. Nothing too severe, he noted, looking at the long, jagged slit in her foot. It looked like it had been caused by a sharp rock or some other serrated object, and was still bleeding steadily. Enough to freak out an already terrified young woman.

"I ain't got nothing to bandage this with" Reno informed, never taking his eyes off the injury as if it would suddenly get worse. He mulled over his options, turning her foot to the side gently so he didn't open the wound further. "Can you flex it?"

Yuffie shook her head dejectedly.

"Okay" Reno sighed, squeezing her ankle a little. "New plan" He lowered her foot gently to the floor and grabbed the bottom of his eternally untucked shirt. Grabbing a small, pointy stone from the gravely floor, he punctured a hole in the bottom of his shirt and poked his long, thin index finger through it. The shirt tore with surprising ease.

"I'm gonna have to tear some of this off" he indicated the fabric "Then I'll tie it round your foot."

"You're gonna stick your stinky shirt round my foot?" Yuffie asked, regarding the material with obvious distaste.  

"Got any other ideas?" Reno asked standoffishly, beginning to pull away a thick strip of the shirt.  His eyes never left the task in hand. "Unless you want your foot to go gangrenous and fall off, I'd suggest you co-operate"

"You're beginning to sound like Vincent. Mr Doom 'n' Gloom" Yuffie said sulkily as he began to tear the material away from around his back with a sound like someone doing a zip up. As she watched, the torn strip finally came away with a frustrated tug and he placed it on his lap, looking down at the shredded remains of his shirt in disgust. He'd torn such a thick strip that his navel was now visible.

"Look at me" he said distastefully, turning his wrinkled nose and large liquid eyes to the injured ninja "I look like a tramp, don't I?" he asked good-naturedly, gesturing down at his shirt. He patiently awaited an answer.

Yuffie suppressed the urge to make a libellous comment. After all, he had tried his hardest to be as un-obnoxious as possible, so it figured that she should do the same. She shook her head solemnly, unconsciously running her slender fingers across her bruised arm.

"Ah, hell" Reno said finally, shrugging his jacket off and undoing the buttons that were left on his shirt "It's got to go. If you wanna wear it as a jacket or something, go ahead-it might fit now" he shrugged the shirt off too and offered it to her. 

Yuffie took it and examined it judiciously as she laid it across the platform of her slim calves. It smelled of aftershave-something Reno wore in large quantities. Not to the point where it was overpowering, and not enough to cover up the mixed bittersweet smell of alcohol and, oddly, woodchip. '_Woodchip'_, Yuffie mused. '_Probably from his tendency to fall asleep on Tifa's wooden floor after drinking himself into a stupor_.'

It was an oddly comforting smell, and she pulled the shirt on over her cold shoulders. The soft cotton still held some of his warmth and she snuggled against it, trying to grab all the warmth for herself before the cold, selfish breeze stole it.

Looking up at him, she saw that, though lean, he wasn't as gaunt as she'd always pictured him to be. As he shrugged his jacket back on (he refused to wear blazers like his conformist cohorts Rude and Elena) she saw that he was actually quite muscular. Not sexy-muscular the way Cloud and Vincent were, or (God forbid) chunky-muscular the way Barret was, but he had the wiry physique of a swimmer, and he was nowhere near bony. Like his face (which Yuffie and Tifa had always agreed was absolutely gorgeous) his slightly tanned body was tattooed with countless scars and markings, presumably battle scars. He had a small black tattoo etched below his collarbone in what looked like a very basic dialect of Wutaian. She read it as 'pride' but as it wasn't her own dialect, she wasn't very sure. She made a mental note to ask him about that later.

"Now for your foot" he said paternally, sounding detached and almost remote. He looked down at her foot and pulled the long, thick white strip off his knees and folded it gently around her foot as if he'd done it a hundred times or more. 

Yuffie watched his face, knotted in concentration. Only a little bit of his luminescent green eyes was visible from under his thin red eyebrows and his thick forest of dark eyelashes, shining up brightly. His jaw, set in concentration, twitched from time to time as if he was nervous. His well-defined cheekbones caught the dim, watery light from above, lighting up his entire face like his mischievous grins did. His long dextrous fingers knotted the material gently around her ankle, tugging it slightly. She could see that it was already beginning to bleed through, but there was really nothing more either of them could do.

As he looked up at her, brushing his palms on his blue trousers, he extended a hand. "D'you think you can stand, or d'you need help?" he asked, sensing that she had calmed down. In the pit of his stomach he felt a peculiar sense of apprehension. After all, if something had scared Yuffie that much, it had to be bad. But then again, Yuffie always had been one for irrationality…

Yuffie smiled slightly. When Reno was concentrating, he was actually rather cute. She shook her head, her reasonably long waterfall of dark-chocolate coloured hair cascading around her shoulders. "Nah, I think I'm okay" she declined graciously. "I c'n do it by myself"

Reno didn't answer. He was absorbed in his thoughts.

Yuffie shook her head, grinning resignedly, and stood up. She tested her injured foot on the cold, damp floor before tentatively shifting her weight onto it. It hurt a little, but it was bearable. Turning her back to him, she scanned the inside of the cavern. Darkness cloaked most of the cave's secrets, but she could just about make out the hazy outline of a hole in the wall not too far away.

"Hey, Reno" she said, turning her head to face him. Quick as lightning, Reno reached out and slapped her cold, damp backside. 

"Reno!" she yelled in a genuinely angry tone, putting her hands on her slender hips. "This is _not_ the time for your puerile games!"

"Oh, so the kid's using big words?" Reno said pertly, grinning all the while. "I'm surprised you know what 'puerile' means"

Yuffie suddenly searched her mental dictionary for the meaning. She wasn't surprised when she couldn't find it. She'd once heard Tifa refer to Reno as a 'sad, puerile, attention-starved little man' and thought that the description was both very apt and also cool, especially that odd 'p' word in the middle. She'd even sent Barret on a mad hunt for a dictionary once after branding him a 'big smelly puerile lump'

"Shut up Reno" Yuffie said shortly "As much as I'd love to spend time here with you, arguing like silly children, but as the most mature of the two I say we get out of here and fast"

"Oh yeah. And how do you suggest we do that?" Reno grinned endlessly. "The hole I came through is too high to reach. So's the hole above me, and plus the 'gross thing' is up there. We're pretty much stuck for options, kiddo"

"You mean we're stuck down here," Yuffie said bluntly, wrapping a tress of her dark hair around her slender finger.

Reno raised his eyebrows. No tantrums, no angry outbursts. Yuffie had taken the news well. He was impressed. "Pretty much" Reno shrugged "but it could be worse. At least you're with me. You know I'm gonna treat you well. You know I'm gonna entertain you" he broke off to wink flirtatiously "You could be stuck down here with Barret. What would he do to entertain you? Scratch his ass? Amuse you with a game of 'Armpit-Fart-Name-That-Tune?'"

Yuffie sighed. She pulled the white cotton of Reno's ripped shirt around her tightly so it resembled a white mini-dress. "And I suppose you can come up with something better?" she enquired,  "Such as what? Insult-Yuffie-Till-You're-Blue-In-The-Face?"

Reno shook his head, grinning. Acting like a complete idiot had its perks. For one thing it never failed to provide amusement.

'_It also helps you forget'_ his mind chided '_That's why you do it. That's why you drink. That's why you stopped being kind to Yuffie and turned into a complete jerk. Because you're afraid of getting close to her. Because you're afraid that if you do, you'll lose her. Just like you lost…'_

"Reno!" Yuffie said sharply. He was jolted sharply back to reality, and turned his troubled eyes towards her. 

"Sorry" he apologised, scratching his head. She was studying him, her soft grey eyes puzzled. 

"Are you okay, Reno?" she asked, voice full of genuine concern "You keep…sorta…blackin' out. Are you ill?"

"No…it's okay" Reno said, though he wasn't too sure either. Physically, he was fine. Other than the lingering scars from his dark days as an insignificant slum kid, he wasn't injured or ill in any way. But emotionally…mentally, he was ailing in a bad way. The wounds from his past that had just begun to knit and heal like the bleached white furrows scored along his cheeks and torso had been re-opened and were causing him pain and suffering beyond belief. He had long since accepted that the gashes sliced deep into his soul would never truly heal, and just as they were beginning to ease a little, just as the pain had been diluted into a trivial ache, which he thought he might be able to live with…

He looked at Yuffie. She was standing there, the picture of beauty at its most innocent, examining the walls of the cavern with eyes that seemed to expect the walls to close in any second. He allowed his mind to drift back to that moment, those two minutes when he had held her. The two of them, locked in an embrace that neither of them had intentionally prompted. The way she had nestled against him, naïve to his chequered past. The way that, when he had tried to break the embrace, she had snuggled against him with renewed ardour and a strength he hadn't realised she possessed. 

Unknown to Reno, Yuffie was thinking the same. Down here, in the dark, surrounded by abominations of nature on every side and cloaked in thick choking darkness, she'd seen another side to Reno. The impulsive redhead who everyone loathed to some extent had shed his skin and shown a tender side she never knew existed. Reno, the rebel whose bright red hair was almost as fiery as his temper and whose deep, eerie eyes were almost as charismatic as the man himself, had gone from feisty flirt to a sweet gentleman in the space of half an hour. She studied his form, and wondered how he could look so downright gorgeous but be such a holy terror.

_'No time to worry about that!'_ Yuffie's mind prompted '_Now he's acting all sorry for his self, capitalise! He won't have the energy to argue!'  _

Yuffie was surprise and a little disgusted by the way her mind worked. Had she always been this manipulative? God, no wonder people called her a brat! If she was the kind of girl who used people's fragile emotions to get one-ups over them, was it any surprise that people regarded her with suspicion?

_'More to the point…why is it only now that I've started caring?'_ Yuffie asked herself. She again studied Reno, standing there, staring into space as if watching some sort of movie only he could see. The look of hurt in his endless blue eyes was so clear it caused a pang of some unnameable emotion in Yuffie's heart. She accepted this for the moment, so wrapped up in Reno's pain that she was numb to questioning it. He was clearly reliving some sort of nightmare, locked inside a prison of his own construction, one to which an unknown person held the key. 

"Reno…" she said, and suddenly she didn't recognise her own voice. It was full of worry, something both AVALANCHE and the Turks usually attributed to her friend Tifa.

Reno looked up, unable to hide the utter distress scripted all over his distressed face. His eyes glimmered as if full of tears, and as she watched, he blinked fiercely to get rid of them. "Yes?" he said in a world-weary tone, sounding ten years older than he was.

Yuffie suddenly realised that she didn't know what to say. She just wanted to reach out and hold him, to comfort him like he had a few moments ago after her tumble from the beast's lair. The way he held himself-he was no longer the cocky, self-assured Turk hit man he was in public.

"Reno, I…" Yuffie began. She watched as Reno sighed, a jaded sigh that belonged to someone like Vincent Valentine, someone who'd been to hell and back. "I…" 

Her words were cut off by a low, rumbling growl emanating from the cavern above. With a terrified whimper, Yuffie stared up at the hole.

Five Mako eyes stared back.

"It's here!" Yuffie shrieked. "It's back!!" 

_Okay, so this is a lot deeper than the last chapter. To be honest I had no idea I could write like this until I really thought about it. Reno's mystery love…she wasn't part of my original plot, but I though it'd be an interesting little development. I've probably made who she is way too obvious. But writing from Reno's point of view is fun! Expect AVALANCHE and the Turks to show up soon!_

_Comments and reviews welcome!_

_Thanx, TIO_


	3. Chapter 3-The Godless One

Chapter 3-The godless one

'We're gonna die! We're gonna die down here with all the gross things!' 

_Yuffie Kisaragi_

_'Heard a true story_

_Said someone to me yesterday_

_Said he'd heard it in a taxi_

_Must've had him at my mercy_

_Drown that poor thing_

_Put it out of it's misery_

_Condemn it to it's future_

_Deny it's history_

_Deny it's history'_

_"Ready for Drowning'_

_Manic Street Preachers_

Reno bounded back mechanically as a long, tapering limb shot through the hole at lightning speed. It was a dark shade of midnight blue, speckled with glittering green scales, blending with the dark blue stone of the walls. It was about the same length and width as Reno himself and equipped with a set of thick, tree-trunk like yellow claws, each one as thick as Yuffie's arm and sharper than the serrated points of her treasured Conformer. The arm groped blindly in the darkness for a quarry it could not see. It smelled the thick, cloying aroma of Yuffie's panic, an aroma that had been waning but had suddenly returned in a huge, glorious burst. It could also smell another smell, the tangy scent of male fear. There was not one but two meals down there, and the thing wanted both. In a fit of euphoria, the creature swiped at thin air intermittently, not knowing what it was aiming for.

"$#!£!" Reno blurted loudly as the tip of the serrated, sickle-shaped claw brushed Yuffie's arm lightly. "Yuffie!" 

Yuffie instinctively leapt back with remarkable swiftness and agility that only a Ninja could possess, regarding the alien object with a fusion of horror, alarm and repulsion.

Reno reached out on impulse and wrapped both of his strong arms around her slight waist. Lifting her off the ground, he picked her up and backed up gradually before permitting himself to look at the thing again, frightened but fascinated at the same time.

The creature's arm flailed around a little more. Like a snake reacting to the hypnotic melody of a charmer's flute, it writhed this way and that way and this way and that like the hands of a forever-moving metronome. The broad talons, stuck like splinters into the iridescent limb, scraped the air for its prey. From time to time, a plume of white steam burst noisily through the hole, creating a smoky aura for the groping limb of the monstrosity. 

The monstrosity that Yuffie had actually _touched_.

"It's okay, it's okay" Reno repeated like a mantra, more to comfort himself than Yuffie. His deep azure eyes were like saucers. They were so wide they were at serious risk of falling out. "It can't get through. It can't get through. It…"   
His sentence was broken off by an excruciatingly painful shrill whine not dissimilar to the loud, squealing engines of the Highwind. At first, both Yuffie and Reno thought that irritable old Cid had decided to come back and rescue them. Their hopes were dashed as the creature pulled its arm out of the hole and, in its place, shot a narrow ray of dazzling amber light, which literally melted the jagged blue rock with an eye-watering fizzing sound.

Yuffie watched with a numbing mixture of fear and disbelief as the solid rock that had maliciously carved at her foot and obstructed her escape a little while ago became nothing more than a sorry-looking pile of blue-black mush. Black scorch marks adorned the unmelted rock like primitive cave paintings. As the orange beam dispersed, fading until only the abstract yellow and green patterns of the glare remained, dancing in front of Reno and Yuffie's eyes, there was a dull thud, and the creature fell through the hole.

Attached to the long, ungainly cobalt arms was something that surpassed even Jenova in the grotesque stakes. A thickset body, long and chunky and dripping with some grey, revolting, unnameable substance, tapering down to a long arrowhead tail. The back legs were nimble and horse like, although fairly chunky, and appeared to belong to something else. How they managed to support the misshapen, blubbery bulk of the thing was a mystery.

Reno whimpered like a child. The head of the thing was long, skeletal, and repulsively abstract, continuously oozing some disgusting mottled grey substance identical to the 'waterfalls' of the caverns. Five bright eyes jammed onto the head blinked in tandem and registered the situation with a hint of primitive stupidity. From time to time, a long forked tongue dipped out to play along the thick grey lips. Closer inspection revealed a dripping mouth crammed full of tiny yellow ice-pick teeth, connected by long cords of saliva. A growl reverberated deep in the caverns of its throat.

"Careful" Reno whispered as Yuffie cowered against him in wide-eyed terror and childlike disgust "Don't make any sudden moves"

"Reno" Yuffie whined shakily as the thing tested the air like a snake. "Get me out of here…please…"

The beast lunged forward into what both Yuffie and Reno took as an aggressive stance. It was actually moving forward, its huge, cumbersome arms thrust ahead to drag its awkward upper body along like a crippled orang-utan as its delicate back legs trotted after it.

Reno, still clutching Yuffie's slender waist for dear life, took a faltering step backwards, never taking his eyes off the slowly advancing creature. "Prepare yourself," he whispered through clenched teeth.

"Wha…?" Yuffie managed to say before Reno whisked her backwards. With a shriek, Yuffie was yanked towards the indistinct outline of what Reno prayed was an exit. He had never been exceptionally religious, but now he was praying to anything that would listen for an escape route.

Reno had only taken two strides before, without any sort of warning, there was an intense flare of bright light, and the creature shot. A sphere of fizzing power, this time a pale lemon yellow gathered in between the crammed mandibles of the thing, causing a violent tremor to run down the length of its body. Then, with a quiet boom, the ball exploded into a huge pillar of frothing lemon light, spewing out of the thing's jaws and heading directly for the retreating Reno.

Reno hadn't seen it coming, but felt it: a paralysing, searing eruption of white-hot pain that spread across his back, reducing his thick jacket to nothing more than gritty dust. It continued to burn through to his skin as, with a concluding grunt of exertion, the thing spat out another orb, this time a ragged indigo. As it sped down the shaft of poor yellow light like a bowling ball down an alley.

Reno knew what was going to happen. He let go of Yuffie and pushed her away from him violently as the blue sphere caught up with him and exploded with a deafening bang, forcing him forward with a yell. The impact threw him forward, further than the disgruntled and thoroughly terrified Yuffie. His hands automatically shot out in front of him to break his fall. He felt a searing heat in his shoulder blades as his arms flew out, and as he hit the floor the a ripping sensation dashed up his back and fandangoed lightly down his spine, lingering like the ringing in his ears. The intense pain got the better of him and he momentarily blacked out.

Yuffie scrutinized her grazed elbows absent-mindedly before realising what had just happened. An odd breed of anaesthetized calm stole across her, the false calm of shock. Even as she gazed incoherently at Reno's still, badly burnt form she felt nothing but a strange airy serenity wash over her like the waves lapping gently at the Costa del Sol beach.

Then a cold thought crept into her head. As cold as her calmness and as vicious as those ice-pick teeth, it crawled in and brought her back to brutal, bitter reality.

And the thought was _Reno…_

"Reno…?" Yuffie bleated as she snapped back into consciousness. She turned her alarmed, smoky-grey eyes to his face. His scarred cheek was pressed against the dark stone of the ground like a pillow. His striking blue-green eyes were squeezed shut in an expression of extreme hurt.  

"Reno…don't you dare be unconscious!" she said scoldingly, expecting Reno to jump up, probably slap her backside and grin his cocky little grin. When he didn't, Yuffie allowed a loud, shamefully childish whine escape her pursed lips. "Gawd, gawd, gawd…"

There was a shrieking sound from behind her and, without even looking, Yuffie could tell the 'thing' was going to shoot again. But she had a little time, while it recharged. At least, she prayed it had to recharge.

She had to act quickly. Trying her hardest to clear her head of all emotion ('be like Vinny…be like Vinny…') she reached out and grabbed both of Reno's lifeless arms. She flinched a little when his face knotted up in a burst of fresh pain, but didn't allow it to get to her and crouched down. With some difficulty, she pulled his limp form over her slender shoulders, grunting with the effort-he was a lot heavier than he seemed. She realised that from this point onwards she was going to have to use every ounce of strength left in her small body to escape with Reno intact.

Looping Reno's arms around her neck and securing them in place with one nail-bitten hand, she allowed her eyes to travel and sneak a peek at the 'thing'.

Just as she feared, there was a small, rapidly growing ball of red light in front of its mouth. She knew yellow was bad, orange was worse, and she didn't want to know what red meant.

"Reno…why did you have to be so goddamned heavy?" she lamented before taking a deep gulp of air. Then, steadying her nerves ('be like Vinny…just be like Vinny') she pulled Reno and herself up and began to run as best as she could. 

Carrying Reno was a lot harder than she'd first anticipated. He was out cold and therefore limp. He kept lolling over to the side, which threw Yuffie off balance. Ignoring this, she kept her eyes on the hazy outline, becoming clearer and clearer all the time. 

Her little feet and thin legs pumping for all they were worth, all she was aware of was the rhythmic 'slap-slap' of her sneakers on the hard floor and the erratic booming drumbeat of her heart in her throat. 

As the adrenaline kicked in, Reno's weight suddenly became a triviality. With a speed and strength she hadn't realised she possessed, she cleared the last few metres in a couple of long strides and passed through the doorway.

It took her a full few seconds to realise she was skidding along the greasy cliff to the edge of a crumbling overhang.

"OH $#!£!" Yuffie screamed, grabbing the slippery, crumbling edge with both hands, digging in her blunt nails as if it would make a difference. As she anchored herself into the slimy cliff-face, the only thing she was consciously aware of was Reno, slipping from her slender shoulders and off into the luminous green mako pit below.

"$#!£, $#!£, $#!£…" She repeated like some sort of panic-stricken, vulgar haiku, pulling one of her hands free of the cliff and reaching out for Reno. As he finally slipped, she caught him, nearly yanking her own arm out of its socket as well as his. As they dangled like tangled marionettes from the cliff, her fingers slithered further off the edge.

Yuffie realised that she was losing her grip. On both her sanity and the cliff.

"RENO! WAKE YOUR SORRY LITTLE SELF UP!" she bawled, more out of terror than anger.

There was no reaction. Reno was still out cold. His closed eyes stared up at her, seemingly unaware of their predicament.

"We're gonna die! We're gonna die down here with all the little gross things!" she screamed helplessly, her terrified voice echoing off the walls of the crater. "We're…" Her voice was cut off as she finally lost her grip and, without a sound, they plunged towards the lake of green below.

                                                      * * * * * * *

_'It's been a while,_

_Since I saw, the way the candles light your face._

_It's been a while, _

_But I can still remember just the way you taste'_

_"It's been a while"_

_Stain'd_

_Black. Lots of black, and some grey. A whirring sound like helicopter blades. Then more black._

_Reno struggled to open an eye. It felt like some malicious imp had tied a lead weight to his eyelashes and stuck his eyelids together with superglue. Just for a laugh._

_Desperate to see something other than grainy black, Reno gave his eyelids one last tug._

_Then light should have flooded in. But it didn't. Just more black._

The first thing Reno was aware of, other than the blackness, was that he was no longer laying on the cold, dusty stone of the Northern Cave. In fact, he wasn't laying on any floor. He was surrounded on all sides by a sea of buoyant sea of nothingness.

_'Am I dead…?'_ he asked himself stupidly, reaching out and touching the surface he was lying on. It was solid, that was for sure, but he couldn't feel any sort of earthly substance below him.

The last thing he could consciously recall was being shot by a beam of searing energy and losing consciousness. The burst of pain that shot down his spine as he shifted reassured him that he was very much alive…and very lost.

He pushed himself up, rearranging his injured, aching limbs into a sitting position. His cold blue-green eyes scanned the darkness, taking his surroundings (or, lack of) in.

The second thing he noticed was that he was alone. No dripping freak of a monster, no 'gross things'…and no Yuffie. Just where his cynical sidekick had disappeared to was unclear. But, before he started looking for her, he thought it wise to work out just where he was.

Reno stood up, and was again disconcerted by the lack of any sort of floor. He felt as if he was walking on thin air. In fact, he couldn't even feel his body. The only thing assuring him that it was still there was that he could feel pain in certain parts of it. His muscles screamed blue murder each time he moved even the slightest bit. His aching back felt sore. The skin felt tight and seemed to be radiating some sort of strange heat. 

At least, he assumed it was his back. In a weird place like this, his body might well be re-arranged. Just because, to his eyes it appeared normal didn't mean that it was as it seemed.

"Maybe I'm in the middle of the Planet," he said to himself, unnerved by the fact that his voice was echoing in the endless expanse of blackness. He could vaguely recall the stories told by Tifa and co about their experiences at the centre of the Planet. How they felt 'disembodied' and like they were 'walking on air'.

And how, at the end, Sephiroth had awaited them, omnipotent and all-powerful in the bizarre and outlandish hell he dominated.

Reno walked a little further. His surroundings had not changed a bit, and he had the slightest hunch that he was getting nowhere.

"Goddamit, where the hell am I?" he asked nobody, steadily losing his notoriously short temper, wishing that Yuffie was here to offer him a pearl of her infinite 'wisdom'.

_*~Here~* _a mysterious female voice called back.

Reno jumped. His heart lurched. He scanned the darkness around him for the owner of the voice.

He saw nothing but the same featureless void.

"What the…? Who the hell…?" Reno's frantic eyes scrutinized the nothingness. "Yuffie? Elena? Where the hell are you?"

*~_Tee-hee!_ _I'm right here, silly~*_

Reno concluded that, from the lyrical tone of voice and the fact that the mystery female had said 'silly' as opposed to 'dumbass', it was not Yuffie he was talking to.

"Where's here?" Reno asked again patiently, not sure that he really wanted to find out who was talking. Again, another of Cloud's many, many stories entered his mind-the one about the mysterious female-in-a-swimsuit named Pollensalta who had the ability to confuse males by blowing them kisses. If the person/thing talking was indeed a 'Pollensalta'…

His thoughts were interrupted by the voice, which now seemed to be emanating from everywhere.

*~_Here~* _

Reno was aware of something becoming visible in the far right of the void. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the featureless white light take a female shape.

"Bugger" Reno said to himself impassively, resigned to his fate. It _had_ to be a Pollensalta. He was done for. Where was Yuffie when you needed her?

He turned to face the white light, folding his arms and wishing with all his might that he had tied his hair with the protective Ribbon he had received as a 25th birthday present from Elena rather than the piece of manky grey string he had found behind the sofa while looking for the aforementioned item.

"Come on then Pollensalta" Reno said tiredly, hand unconsciously creeping down to where his nightstick was holstered. "Do your worst"

*~_Who's Pollensalta?~* _the voice tittered melodically, becoming increasingly familiar all the time *~_I'm not Pollensalta. I'm~*_

There was a burst of pale green light so intense that Reno had to shield his eyes. He could feel it cocooning and bathing his injured body, warming and soothing it like some blessed ointment, cooling his scalded shoulder-blades, massaging the ache from his strained muscles, rearranging his body so he knew it didn't resemble a Picasso painting.

He pulled his sleeve away from his eyes, still squinting in the aftermath.

What he saw brought all the pain back…pain because he knew it was an illusion

"I'm Aeris," she said, stepping out from an invisible chrysalis. And she was Aeris.

"How…how?" Reno's ethereal blue eyes widened to the size of dishes. The soothing green light hadn't been strong enough to heal his emotional wounds. Still staring, he felt an unnameable force push him down until he was looking up at her.

Smiling her soft, gentle smile, Aeris moved forward, her feet hardly touching the 'ground'. She hadn't lost any of her sprightly elegance in death. Neither had her effortless beauty been tainted.

Reno's eyes followed her every move. Aeris reached out and brushed away a stray strand of fiery hair. She knelt down until she was looking directly into his eyes, reading the story of his pain and suffering.

"Oh, my poor baby" she said sadly, her voice no longer the omnipotent echo Reno had mistaken for a she-devil, but the soft, almost helium tone she had used in her short but eventful life. "Poor, poor thing" She reached out and, cupping his angular face in her soft hands, moved her face inches in front of his, whispering "Oh, my baby. You've had it rough, haven't you?"

Reno felt her hands stroke his narrow, scarred face and almost drew back. His eyes peered up at her like a frightened child's. Although she had to be an apparition, he was frightened by just how real her hands felt…and the amount of comfort he was absorbing.

"Aeris…it can't be you" he said, nearly choking on his words. He was disgusted and a little alarmed to feel a sudden surge of emotion wash through his long-frozen heart.

"My poor baby" she repeated sorrowfully, seemingly ignoring him. "Come here"

Reno allowed her to pull his broken body to hers. Her arms, warm and pulsing, looped around his taut neck, pulling his scarred face to her slender shoulder. She placed her hand on his aching head, moving her long slim fingers gently over his soft flaming hair, the other hand tracing the outline of his handsome face as if she were a sculptor perfecting a clay statue.

He buried his face in the soft denim of her jacket, inhaling the familiar mixed scent of flowers and city smoke he had come to know as Aeris' scent. A lock of her soft brown hair tickled his eyelid, assuring him that she was real. He finally surrendered and allowed her to pull him closer.

"God, I've missed you" Reno said, his voice little more than a sigh. His arms acquired a life of their own and encircled her slim waist, his hands coming together in the small of her back, relishing the warmth of her soft cotton dress and the feeling of being held by someone he loved. "It was my fault…you know…"

"Shhh" Aeris eased, pressing her warm lips against the cold skin of his cheek. "Let me have this moment. I've missed you so much"

Reno sighed and began gently rocking her, the way he had back in the days before AVALANCHE and Sephiroth, before all the worry and danger. He could feel her heart beating against his chest, in time with his, and suddenly felt safer than he ever had in his life.

"Where did you go?" Reno murmured, rocking her like a baby. "Why did you leave me?"

"I had to" Aeris said, her breath warming his frozen skin. "The future of the Planet was in my hands"

"Then why didn't you come back after?" Reno asked. He knew he sounded like a spoilt brat, but he didn't care.

"Because…" Aeris said. And then, as quick as she had arrived, she disappeared.

Reno jolted out of his daydream, the warmth filling his arms and soothing his wounds suddenly replaced with a terrible yearning and a fresh pain.

"Aeris?" he said, his voice small and childlike. He was aware of the terrible constricting blackness all around, of the monsters that lurked in the darkness just waiting for the right moment to pounce…

'_God, when did I turn into such a wuss?'_ Reno asked himself. His hand crept to the nightstick holstered in his belt in preparation for anything that might pounce. His strict Turk training and the laws of the Slums still lived on in his mind, governing his everyday actions. Old habits died hard with Reno. 

*~_You know I can't come back. The fact is, Reno, I'm physically dead. What you saw…what you felt then was my soul, my essence~* _Aeris' soothing voice came from all around again.

"So how come you felt so real?" Reno argued, knowing that no matter how much he wished it, Aeris wasn't coming back. "How come I could feel your heart beating?"

*~_Reno…do you know where you are?~*_

Reno was infuriated by her indifference. "How can you be so cold? How can you…"

*~_Do you know where you are?~*_

"No" Reno said dejectedly, quietly, realising with some pain that it was back to being just another unloved, attention-starved slum kid. "No, I don't"

*~_The lifestream, Reno~* _Aeris' voice informed, a hint of the love she'd shown him still lingering like the scent of flowers. *~_Yuffie saved you from Lameious. It's because of her that I could see you again~*_

"Yuffie dropped me in the lifestream? What a dozy bint!" Reno said, though his voice held no conviction. He had been crushed even more by her remoteness towards him.

*~_Reno, don't misunderstand~* _Aeris' disembodied voice soothed, and this time it was infused with her customary love and affection. *~_I still love you. I always will. And I don't blame you for what happened. No matter what happens, I want you to be happy without me~*_

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Reno demanded hotly, speaking to the entire room. "You were the only good thing I had in my life. What else do I have to be happy about?"

There was no answer.

"I'm an irrelevant little slum kid with no future except maybe to kill a few more people before someone puts me out of my misery!" he yelled, his formerly locked-up emotions now on a wild rampage through his weakened body. "Face it. People treat me like $#!£ for a reason. Why? Because I _am_ $#!£. Without you…" he took a deep breath and continued in a quiet, subdued tone "Without you…I'm nothing"

*~_Not everyone thinks badly of you~* _Aeris' voice told him.

Reno took this in with customary disbelief. After a moment of silence, he looked up at what he assumed was the roof and asked in a mature, yet sad tone "When you were with _them…_did you ever try and make a move on Cloud?" He knew it was an odd, almost stupid question. But ever since she had run away with Cloud on that day, the day where he had passed by the church to check up on her and his idiot soldiers had started shooting at her and attacking her instead of Cloud…ever since he had pretended, for the sake of his job and her safety, that he was after her blood…ever since then…

After a long pause *~_I never, ever felt anything for Cloud~* _Aeris' voice said, almost curtly. Maybe she was hurt at his accusations. _'She has every right to be' _Reno told himself. 

"I'm sorry" Reno apologised, and he was.

*~…_I'm sending you back now, Reno~*_

"Hey, I said I was sorry!" Reno protested, kicking himself mentally for being such a jealous fool.

*~_…I love you~*_

"Hey!" Reno yelled, but she was gone. And, barely two seconds after, so was Reno.

Meanwhile, not too far away, Yuffie lay in her own private hell, suffering the torments of her past and screaming for Reno, or Cloud, or anybody to come and save her.

But nobody heard her.

_Maybe I was too quick in giving away Reno's secret. Maybe not. I don't know at this stage…I guess if I get writer's block later on I only have myself to blame! But then I have Yuffie's past to write about…(cue sly sniggering)_

_Originally, I was going to have Jessie (you know, the girl from AVALANCHE in the very beginning of the game…the one that Reno more or less kills) as Reno's mystery love, and now I'm really wishing that I had because it would have made for all sorts of nice little guilt trip scenes and the like. Oh well, I can't dwell on it. Thanks for reading! Comments to TioRankP@hotmail.com_

_TIO _:-D


	4. Chapter 4-Fear And Loathing

Chapter 4-Fear and loathing

'I never thought I'd find myself missing that silly little ninja freak'

_Cid Highwind_

_'I find the answers aren't so clear_

_Wish I could find a way to disappear,_

_All these thoughts they make no sense,_

_I find bliss in ignorance'_

_"One Step Closer"_

_Linkin Park _

"Who isn't back yet?"

Cloud Strife, Tifa Dominique Lockheart, Cid Jonathon Highwind, Nanaki, Barret Wallace, Shera Eileen Wood and Rude Catalo sat around the battered table that had quickly become the centrepiece of the Turks/AVALANCHE hideout in the still-sleepy town of Lower Junon. The tension hanging in the air was so brittle that you could reach out and snap off a piece.

"Shera and myself returned a short while ago, later than we anticipated" Rude informed emotionlessly in his trademark 'dangerously quiet' tone. "Valentine and Elena still haven't returned, but gave us word on the PHS that they'd be back soon. Which leaves Reno and Yuffie"

"Damn man" Barret said gruffly, thumping the table for no reason. Tifa's stone-cold tea rocked dangerously, the creamy brown liquid sloshing at the sides of the grotty grey mug before finally settling again. "That's some dumb teamin' up you did, Cloud. Norm'ly I trust yo' judgement, but I have ta say, teamin' Reno an' Yuffie up is jes askin' fo trouble"

"I know, I know" Cloud said tiredly, running a hand through his unruly blonde mane. He had clearly been receiving quite a bit of stick for his somewhat rash decision. "I kinda made spur-of-the-moment decisions…"

"And, as fo teamin' up Elena and Vinny…I'm tellin' ya now, I'll be very surprised if they eva talk to ya again" Barret interrupted bluntly in his normal sledgehammer-subtle manner. "It was bad enough havin' ta put up wit' dat damn cat all day, but lookin' at some of them udder teams I see I got off pretty damn lightly"

"Okay Barret, he got your point! Stop going on!" Tifa said, more than a little angrily. She could see that her soon-to-be husband was getting even more stressed. The sky outside was quickly darkening, from dirty red to a dusty purple, the grimy yellow face of the moon beginning to show itself in the sky directly above the devastated capital of Midgar, a broken black silhouette looming ominously in the distance, the skeletal remains of a city that had been dead from the start. Two parties were still missing, one without a trace. Tifa briefly scanned the faces of her companions, her sparkling claret eyes skipping around the table. Shera, looking thoughtful as always, polishing her unflattering, thick-rimmed glasses. Rude, looking as stoic and pokerfaced as always, hiding what emotions he had behind dark glasses. Barret, more worried about whether his wife and daughter were buying the right things on their shopping expedition in the rebuilt Sector 2 of Midgar. Cid, lighting up a fifth cigarette despite his promise to the long-suffering Shera that he would stop. Nanaki, who appeared to be on the brink of sleep, his one good eye periodically closing as he drifted into thought.

And then Cloud. Cloud looked like he was carrying the weight of the Planet on his shoulders.

"I'm not so much worried about Vincent and Elena. They've called us, we know they're on their way" Cid informed matter-of-factly, taking a long drag on his cigarette and blowing stale grey smoke into the air where it lingered over their heads like a phantom. "But Reno and Yuffie…don't you think it was kinda rash of you to send 'em into the crater? She's just a kid, and he…"

"Enough already!" Tifa snapped, slamming her gloved hands down on the table. Everyone shut up and stared up at her, surprised at her uncharacteristic outburst.

"I'm…I'm sorry" Tifa said quietly, disgusted at herself for losing her temper. Her troubled gaze fell to the polished spiked knuckles of the Premium Heart. "I'm just...kinda…stressed, that's all"

There was more than just an element of truth in her excuse. Yuffie was one of her best friends, and she couldn't help wondering whether, seeing as none of the other parties had found even a trace of the creature, maybe Yuffie and Reno had found it…

_'Stop thinking like that' _Tifa scolded herself, diverting her eyes to the bitter, murky liquid in the mug, hoping to avoid the burning stares of the others. '_You'll just tempt fate'_

"Sorry Tifa" Cid said, a little sourly. He took another draw on his cigarette and broke into a harsh coughing fit. Choking on the stale smoke, he held the offending article at arm's length, away from his streaming eyes. Then, still coughing, he took another draw and blew a series of grey rings which floated up gently and disintegrated somewhere near the ceiling. His coughs became irregular, quiet hacks and then faded into nothing.

The room and its occupants once again fell victim to tense silence. Tifa took a deep breath, inhaling the stale, second-hand smoke. She swallowed the sour taste reluctantly and washed it down with cold, sugarless tea, swallowing hard.

Shera turned to Rude. "Though we never found the creature" she began, a little uneasy at breaking the edgy silence "Rude and I found some interesting things…didn't we Rude?" 

Rude looked up suddenly. His hands, moulded and hardened by so many battles into two blocks of rock-hard flesh, moved unconsciously up to his sunglasses and lifted them up.

Beneath the dark lenses of his perpetually present sunglasses, Rude hid a pair of strikingly lovely blue-green mako eyes. Why he chose to hide them was a mystery-like the mystery of why he chose to shave his head to the point of baldness and why he talked even less than Vincent Valentine.

"We were stationed in the area around Icicle Inn" Rude began, his quiet, throaty voice strangely soothing. "Shera had suggested we check out Gast's place"

"It was Rude's idea" Shera interrupted graciously, taking off her glasses for a moment. Without the huge glasses, Shera, with her long chestnut locks and chocolate-coloured eyes, was a surprisingly pretty woman. Like Cid, she was in her thirties, and people often commented on their husband/wife like relationship. Despite the way Cid treated her, she remained completely devoted to him.

"He said there could be information on the Jenova project on some of the tapes"

"So we found these" Rude motioned to Shera, who reached into the ample pockets of her lab coat and pulled out a pile of well folded, yellowing papers. Replacing her glasses, she flapped the papers out into shape. 

"These hold information on the Jenova project, and further projects involving other creatures. These include…" Shera broke off to squint through her thick coke-bottle glasses at the sheet of wrinkled paper "…The Dark Nation project, the HO512 project, the Neo-Bahamut project and, lastly, the Lameious project" She put the papers down. "Rude tells me you know of Dark Nation, HO512 and Neo-Bahamut"

"Yeah. Dark Nation wuz Rufus' pet. Cloud kicked his backside somethun' chronic" Barret reminisced with his usual delicate use of the English language. "Neo-Bahamut wuz the dragon dude we got in da Temple of da Ancients"

"And HO512 was the specimen I assisted in the defeat of" Nanaki reminded gruffly from his seat on the ancient wooden floor. "So that leaves Lameious. What does the report say?"

Shera handed the papers to Tifa, who, still not looking anyone in the eye, took them and began to read.

"Regarding: Specimen no.172, code name Lameious…"

"172?" Cid coughed loudly "You mean there's $*^@%£ 172 of 'em?"

"The specimen does not appear to be reacting to the Mako" Tifa continued, a note of irritation in her voice "As it was discovered near a Mako spring we have concluded that it may be immune to its effects. However, further experiments involving climate show interesting changes, details of which are enclosed in the corresponding report"

Tifa shuffled through the papers. Finally she came to the one, written on lined paper that seemed almost new and seemed out of place in the pile of rotting papers.

"Heat: The specimen does not seem to be well adapted for coping with high temperatures. This is evident in the speed with which it deteriorates when subjected to such temperatures. It seems incapable of shedding its thick coat.

Cold: The creature flourishes in colder climates, and we have seen several remarkable changes in it since transferring it. It has begun to excrete a fluid we have never seen before. A sample of this has been taken for testing. Also, it has begun to shed its coat, something that has perplexed us, as it seemed incapable of doing this in the hotter temperatures (a situation in which, I'm sure you will agree, shedding would prove a great deal more useful)

Another notable change is that it appears to be expanding. Whether this is down to exposure to colder temperatures or the Jenova cells is debatable. But we will keep it here in the crater and monitor its progress.

-Chang"

The party sat around the table for a short moment, taking in the new information.

It was Cid who broke the silence.

"Remind me again where you sent Yuffie and Reno?" he asked casually, flicking ash onto the table. 

Cloud's head sunk further down until it was almost touching the table. "The crater" he said resignedly, clasping his hands together behind his head and squeezing his cold blue eyes shut as if he had a headache.

"And where did they say they were keeping that thing?" Cid pressed, pushing the stub into his mouth and taking a deep draw. 

This time Cloud's head did touch the table. His voice was almost inaudible "The crater" he muttered.

"Wait a second" Shera said, fishing in her pockets frantically. "There was one more-I haven't read this one yet. It looks like some sort of print-out" She pulled out a small slip of torn white paper and held it up to the dim light.

"Read it out" Tifa commanded gently, her voice softer and calmer and more…Tifa-like.

Shera pushed her thick glasses further up the thin bridge of her nose and began to read in a clear, fluent tone:

"Lameious project cancelled due to mortality of scientists in charge. The specimen is beyond our control"

"That's it?" Tifa asked grimly, her soft mahogany tresses falling over her eyes. She made no attempt to move them.

"…Yes" Shera nodded apologetically, a worried look quickly gathering behind her thick frames.

"So basically…we can pretty safely say that Reno and Yuffie are goners?" Cid asked bluntly, stubbing his cigarette out on the table again, creating a little ash-filled dimple in the ageing wood.

Nobody said a word. Only a few blissfully oblivious snores from Nanaki's direction stopped the room from being plunged into complete silence.

"I never thought I'd find myself missing that silly little ninja freak" he continued, just as tactlessly "Just goes to show, huh?"

Again, a deathly hush.

"Goddamit!" Cid snapped, slamming the table. All traces of his nonchalant attitude disappeared along with the wispy smoke "We can't just sit around on our backsides thinkin' about it! We gotta do somethin'!"

"Like what?" Cloud challenged angrily, lifting his head. His blue eyes were full to the brim with fire and for a moment Cid was almost afraid. Almost, but…not _quite._

"Don't get snappy with me, Mr Leader" Cid said calmly, brushing the ash from the table nonchalantly with one leather-gloved hand. "I'm not the one sittin' around doin' nothin' but wallowin' in self-pity"

Cloud put his head down again. Tifa glared uncharacteristically at Cid, who ignored her.

"You're the guy in charge here" Cid stopped to light a cigarette "You do what you think is best"

Cloud was about to say something when the door burst open. All eyes turned to the two shadows in the doorway, one tall and lanky with a spiky mane of long hair tied in a loose braid, the other short, slim, short haired and bright eyed.

"Sorry we're late" Elena apologised cheerily, brushing past Tifa in an uncharacteristically airy manner. She seemed unaware of the tense atmosphere in the room, which was unusual, as Elena generally picked up on 'bad vibes' and behaved accordingly.

Vincent shook his long black hair out of whatever flimsy material had been holding it back and pulled up a chair. He folded himself into it and, towering above everyone else, scanned the grim-looking faces with a confused look.

Elena exchanged glances with Vincent. Vincent shrugged. Elena made a face.

"Hey, have we missed something here?" she asked innocently.

I promised a good chapter…okay, so I didn't quite pull it off but it's a short chapter, so I hope reading it wasn't too much torture. I've been looking after my little sis Erin (10 months old and a little cutie-but not when she's screaming) Kate Sith, Majikal Echo and myself have been working on a little play recently so that kinda took priority. Maybe I'll post the script on my site. Maybe I won't. I don't know yet.

_Never mind. Let me know what you thought of this chapter or the story so far (be gentle)_

_Thanks! TIO RANK P/DINCHT _**^-^**__


	5. Chapter 5-Shores Unknown

Chapter 5-Shores Unknown

**__**

'Pinch me again and die'

Reno 

_'I tried so hard,_

_And got so far,_

_But in the end, _

_It doesn't even matter._

_I had to fall,_

_And lose it all,_

_But in the end,_

_It doesn't even matter'_

"In The End" 

_Linkin Park_

Author's note: I just want to say to anyone who hasn't heard the above song, GO AND LISTEN TO IT! It is a brilliant piece of music. The best song I've heard from Linkin Park. The video rules too!! Okay…umm…sorry bout the interruption, on with the story! TIO

The fiery redhead woke from a confused hallucination, which was comprised of a single image: that of Aeris, the beautiful young woman, his everything, who he now realised was never going to be part of his crappy future.  

He heard the ocean. From all around him, he heard the ocean, and felt himself floating, felt his face sink suddenly and then rise, like a piece of floating driftwood. _Fine. I'll drown _Reno thought, listening to the hungry roar of the sea, so akin to that of the beast. _Let me drown. There's no point in carrying on._ But as he listened, he realised that he was not hearing the sound of the open ocean. It was a grating, harsh sound; the lapping, foaming tongue of the sea swallowing down pebbles greedily. If he was floating, then why did land sound so near? Why could he feel pebbles beneath his broken body? Why could he feel…

Freezing water gushed up, drenching his shoes and running all the way up past his stomach to his neck. His eyes flew open and what snapped him out of his state of delusion wasn't the cold, or the terrible agony of his shoulders, but a sharp pinching feeling in his right hand.

He snapped his head to the right and saw his assailant. A large crab, which must have been thrown ashore by an earlier wave, scuttling nimbly across the sharp sand. It regarded Reno with tiny beady eyes on stalks. Its serrated claws opened and it lunged for Reno's thumb.

"Pinch me again and die" Reno dared the little creature. He garnered enough energy to pull his hand away, and the crab was pulled back down to Reno's immobile feet by another wave.

Reno lay his face back down on the sand, feeling the gritty grains press into his face. He tried to remember how he had got here…wherever 'here' was…but the passage of time between his meeting with Aeris and his arrival on this lonely shore was one big blank.

He heard the grinding, churning roar of the waves and looked from his sore thumb to the incoming wave, crested with a cape of curdling, stinking foam.

"Oh no, I'm not being soaked again" Reno said to himself. He tried to get up but his legs, too numb to feel, refused to function and buckled. Instead, he dug both hands into the stony sand and, prompting an angry whine from his thumb and a loud bellow from his back, dragged his lanky form up the shingle and away from the wave.

He managed to avoid getting totally soaked. The wave buried his shoes, attempting attack his lean calves but retreated.

There was a tiny slice of dirty white moon in the sky, cloaked by a veil of dark cloud. As a consequence, it was too dark to see along the beach. The sea glimmered a little, and the roaring noise, bitter wind and pain in his back were the only things convincing him he was no longer dreaming.

Then something in the distance, something that stood out among all the other motionless silhouettes, caught Reno's eye. He staggered to his feet, and on legs that he could barely feel, he began a steady trot down the beach.

He reached it-a shapeless lump of something that wasn't driftwood. He reached out a tentative hand and felt smooth, if wet skin, soft fabric, and wet, stringy hair.

It took his cold, hurt and thoroughly addled brain a few moments to realise that he was touching Yuffie's shoulder.

"Yuffie?" Reno hissed, as if afraid to wake her. He shook her cold, unmoving shoulder. Yuffie was as limp as a rag-doll. "Yuffie, wake up _now"_

Reno clumsily turned her onto her back. In the dim, hazy light, he could see that her lips were a pale violet (although that might have been just the reflection of the sky, which was a beautiful deep violet speckled with patches of indigo and beaded with glittering stars) and that, although so shallow it was almost undetectable, she had a pulse. But she was not breathing.

"Never thought I'd see myself doing this" Reno said matter-of-factly to Yuffie's motionless form. He reached forward and parted her delicate, cold lips. Taking a deep breath of salty, cold air and resisting the urge to cough it all out like a wheezing old man, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, breathing life into her immobile lungs.

He pulled away slowly. She still wasn't breathing.

"You're not making this easy," Reno scolded lightly, not really in any mood to be seriously angry, laying his hand on her chest to feel her heartbeat. It seemed to be a little stronger, but that was probably Reno's imagination.

"You want more?" Reno asked her amiably. The feeling of sleepiness circling him like a flock of vampire bats waiting to drink him dry grew ever stronger. He studied Yuffie's face attentively. Her pretty eyes, steely-grey ringed with lilac, were closed, her long, straight black lashes spread out like charred palm fronds over her olive coloured cheeks. Strands of wet black hair lay across her face and he brushed them away paternally, surprised by the softness of her skin. 

Reno was struck by her pale, moonlit beauty. Okay, so she didn't have Tifa's voluptuous figure, or Elena's blonde-haired-blue-eyed-perky cuteness, but in the moonlight, the pale white light that cloaked her like a bridal veil, her artless, natural beauty surpassed both of theirs. Her heart-shaped face, her subtle cheekbones, her delicate nose and flawless olive skin… Despite the hardships and torment her face and indeed her soul had been through, she still retained her cheeky, endearing grin. The vivid, youthful glow encapsulated in her eyes like caged bird hadn't fallen victim to the cruel hands of time. And, as Reno's hand rested on her cheek, he noticed that neither had her soft, smooth complexion.

Reno shook his head, sprinkling cold water over Yuffie's still form. Taking another deep breath, this one deeper than the first, he leant forward and pressed his lips hard on hers, almost like he was kissing her rather than trying to revive her. He breathed into her again, and this time her eyes flickered open.

Reno pulled away just in time to see Yuffie's surprised eyes swing up to his face, and flicker shut again.

"Thank arse for that!" he exclaimed tiredly, flopping down in the softer, dryer sand and allowing the strong, maladroit hands of sleep to seize him roughly. He pulled his wet arm over his face, his skin smelling of salt and feeling sticky against his dry forehead. He took a deep gulp of the fresh night air and sighed.

When he pulled his arm away, he realised that Yuffie had fallen unconscious again.

"Hey, hey, no, don't you _dare_ black out again!" Reno scolded, slapping her face lightly. Yuffie's face contorted into one of pain, and she rolled over onto her side and vomited up all the seawater she had swallowed, eyes still tightly shut.

Reno turned away, as much out of disgust as politeness. When the disgusting retching sounds had stopped, Reno turned again.

Yuffie was laying on her back again, with both hands over her goose-pimpled stomach. Her emerald green tank top was slashed cruelly at the shoulder and hanging off like a piece of peeled skin. The tattered remnants of Reno's shirt hung around her sylphlike waist wetly, clinging to her slender frame like rubber, covering her once-white shorts. Cold sweat beaded her brow like little glimmering diamonds, mirroring the stars in the sky.

"How d'you feel?" he asked smoothly, trying to camouflage the raw, burning pain in his back and the lesser, more irksome pain of his crab-eaten thumb.

Yuffie shook her head gently and opened her mouth slowly as if her jaw ached. Nothing but a little parched squeak came out. She closed her eyes and began to quiver, softly at first, then a little harder.

"Yuffie?" Reno questioned anxiously, studying her face, which had blanched dramatically. 

One of the snags of being in Shinra was the amount of time they had to spend in Mako reactors. It had never really affected him or Rude, but Raphaelle Starling, a lowly (but beautiful) female Shinra soldier who used to accompany them on their jobs, always seemed to become violently ill after a visit. Once she was made to clean up a small Mako spillage and for two weeks afterwards was so ill that everyone had feared the worst. A young, love-struck Rude had almost died of anxiety. 

Reno mulled over the facts. Yuffie had just plummeted out of a marauding monster's lair shocked out of her mind, had fallen headlong into a huge pit of poisonous Mako, and to top it all off had just survived (barely) being cast up on some freezing-cold crab-ridden beach full to bursting point with sea water, most of which had been vomited up. Reno was willing to bet that the rest would come back to haunt them some time during the night.

"Yuffie…?" Reno asked hesitantly, almost timidly, placing a wary hand on her forehead. He almost drew back when he felt how hot it was, but kept his cool palm there in a vain attempt to quell the raging fever.

"I…I don't…feel" Yuffie croaked faintly before rolling over and throwing up again. Reno frowned and moved his cool hand from her forehead to her cheek and, placing his other hand by her other cheek, gently lifted her face up until he was holding her against him, away from the mess she'd made. He held her like that until she had finished. Then he placed her down again, turning her around and pulling her away from her mess, down in the cold, powdery sand. She shivered again, and cold sweat once again dotted her brow, running down her burning face in little rivulets.

"Well we're in pretty deep now, huh?" Reno yelled angrily, his loud, quite deep voice echoing along the deserted shore. "You silly little bitch! How the hell are we supposed to cope now?" He knew he was being completely unreasonable, but he was on a roll "If you were conscious we'd have been alright, but I don't know where we are, how we got here, how…how we're gonna get away and whether…whether…" his temper subsided enough for him to catch his breath. Breathing deeply, he steadied his frayed nerves and flicked rigid, brackish strands of blood red hair from his deep aquamarine eyes. "I don't even know if you're gonna survive the night" 

Yuffie shivered, totally deaf to his illogical outburst.

Reno studied her feverish form for a while. He hadn't known why he had blown up like that, or why he had yelled at an unconscious teenager. After all, _she_ hadn't made the teams. It had been…

"Strife, you bloody bastard" he said to himself soullessly, staring as far into the distance as the thick mist and his own sore eyes would let him. "If we…if Yuffie dies, then let it be on your head," He allowed his tired eyes to drop back to Yuffie again, fearfully watching the shallow rise and fall of her abdomen as if it would suddenly stop.

"The devil's diggin' your grave," Reno told her coldly, a phrase well used by his late mother. The devil had indeed dug her grave, and drink had taken her there. Reno frowned, his good mood evaporated like the cold sweat burning off her forehead.

Yuffie shuddered violently as if his words had scared her.

Suddenly a buried part of Reno, a part that he hadn't acknowledged since Aeris' death, a part that had once again taken to his controls when Yuffie had fallen through the ceiling back in the Crater, sparked back in to life. He scooted across the short expanse of colourless, anaemic sand and, wriggling until he had made a shallow gully for himself, reached out and pulled a limp Yuffie to him. He tucked his arm underneath her motionless body, pulling her onto her side. She shifted a little, murmuring restlessly under her breath. Reno lay still and paused, waiting for her to settle again

When he was satisfied that she wasn't going to wake, he drew her back towards his chest, working his other arm gently round until it was under her head, acting as a sort of pillow. Her soft, slightly damp hair flowed over his arm like thick, dark syrup. He rested his chin on her wet shoulder, the sand and wool combination immediately irritating him. The cold, slender curve of her back rested against his chest and abdomen, her silky skin against his own scarred body, her fever somewhat pacified by his cool skin. Still muttering feverishly under her breath, the ailing ninja pressed herself against him further, relishing the chill of his skin and the comfort. She shivered again, but this time it was neither violent nor accompanied by a childlike whine. She actually appeared to be comfortable. Perhaps the devil had given her a break.

"I hope you realise" Reno began, speaking into her ear "That I only intend to act like this until we get you a nice bed. It doesn't mean anything"

No answer. Of _course_ there was no answer.

"Yeah, well. Just as long as you remember that" Reno curled his long legs up until his knees were on par with Yuffie's. Pressing his face against his pillow of sand and damp, silky hair, he had time for only one thought before sleep took him with the rough hands of an over-zealous bouncer.

And that thought was: '_we're expendable. That bastard Cloud sent us out here to the edge of nowhere because, at the end of the day, we're expendable. If we died…if Yuffie dies…it won't mean a thing to him. We're added baggage. We're nothing'_

"Bastard" Reno mumbled. Then he slept.

Cloud and Tifa were the only ones still up.

Elena had been the first to retire to bed, and everyone else had been quick to follow. Only Cloud and Tifa remained awake in the vain hope that Yuffie and Reno would return.

Cloud stared out the window at the thick clouds that had quickly gathered. His mind was void of all thought, simply because he knew his thoughts would travel to the plight of his friends…well, friend. He'd never counted Reno as a true friend, although the two of them fought a lot less than they used to. It seemed that Reno found bugging Elena a lot more fun and productive, and Cloud was eternally grateful for that fact. 

Tifa pulled her short black skirt further down her perfectly toned thighs. It was very late. The two remaining Turks were camping up in Yuffie's room, and everyone else was fast asleep elsewhere. Ordinarily, she would be too, curled up in her warm bed, but tonight…

"Cloud" Tifa began, flicking an errant lock of dark hair out of her eyes. 

Cloud turned and smiled at her wearily. The only light in the darkened living room came from Marlene's room. She insisted on having a nightlight, in case any 'monsters' came to get her in the night. A habit left over from her days in the slums, where Barret had been afraid to leave her should a Vice or something like that came to get her. Here, in the sleepy seafront town of Lower Junon, a small town risen from the ashes, far superior to the rusting hulk of disused metal above, Marlene should have felt safe, but like Reno's Turk training and Cid's smoking, old habits died hard. Tifa could see the faint glow from Cloud's luminescent eyes, lighting up his face and comforting her. 

"It's late" he said quietly, so as not to disturb Nanaki, who was curled up on the sofa. "Let's call it a night"

"But what if Reno and Yuffie get back?" Tifa said worriedly, trying to suppress a yawn. "What if they have to wait outside all night?" 

Cloud leant forward and placed his hand over hers. "Shhh" he soothed. "It's late now. They won't get back tonight. And if they do, there's a cheap hotel right on our doorstep. I know Reno's a bit of a skinflint, but I know he's not so stingy that he'd rather wait on us all night. And besides, Yuffie'd soon set him straight"

Tifa nodded tiredly. She still wasn't too comfortable about potentially leaving her friends out in the cold all night, but she was tired, and Cloud was probably right anyway…

"Cloud" she murmured again, her own mahogany eyes lighting up the darkness. Anyone else would have found them sinister in the gloom. Cloud only saw them as the soulful eyes of the love of his life. "What if…what if they don't come back?"

For a moment, Cloud didn't say anything. Then, slowly, contemplatively "We cross that bridge when…_If…_we come to it. Now, go to bed. You look like you're gonna collapse" Cloud squeezed her hand fondly, his tone softening. His blue eyes, normally cold and ominous, sparkled with the warmth and love Tifa was accustomed to. She relaxed a little. This wasn't the stressed out Cloud of earlier. This was her Cloud.

"You know, your problem is you're too nice" Cloud scolded gently "You worry so much about everyone else that you forget your own needs. You're on the verge of collapse and you're worrying about whether Reno and Yuffie can cope with a night out?"

Tifa was too tired to argue.

"Come on" Cloud said, releasing her hand. "Time for bed"

Tifa took one last hopeful glance at the door. Then, reluctantly, she allowed herself to be led upstairs to where she would eventually fall asleep, dreaming of Yuffie and Reno in the clutches of some hideous creation torn from the womb of the underworld.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      *************

_'I was angry when I met you,_

_I think I am angry still,_

_We can try to talk it over if you say you'll help me out,_

_Don't worry baby, no need to fight,_

_Don't worry baby, we'll be alright._

_This is the noise that keeps me awake,_

_My head's on fire and my body aches,_

_But don't worry baby, we'll be alright'_

_"Push it"_

_Garbage_

Reno woke with the mother…no…the _grandmother_…of all headaches. Thudding, screaming pain shooting from the back of his skull to the front like a bouncing ball, ricocheting from front to back endlessly…

"Bugger this" Reno told himself, his voice thick with sleep and pain. It felt like someone had knocked his head against a brick wall all night. And his back was screaming blue murder.

He pressed his face back down, squeezing his eyes shut, hoping to soothe the pain, but no such luck. Luck had never really been Reno's forte. Lady and Lord Luck weren't very well acquainted with this slum kid.

Pulling his sticky, gritty eyes slowly open again, careful not to let too much light in, he took in his dull, colourless surroundings. To his relief, the stony, anaemic sands and grey, thrashing sea looked a lot less forbidding and endless than it had the previous night. In the distance, nestled among a pillow of unwelcoming black clouds he could barely make out the pale outline of what may have been anything from a ship on the horizon to a harbour town.

_'Junon'_ Reno's mind told him joyfully, prompting a sharp stab of pain. _'Junon is a harbour town'_

Reno carefully hauled himself into a sitting position. Every muscle in his body felt like it was ready to snap. He gently removed his aching arms from underneath his comatose companion's inert body. Her fever seemed less intense, he noted, as he tested her still warm forehead with a tentative hand. But he didn't want to wake her just yet. Let her sleep a little longer, he told himself, smiling a little at her peaceful sleeping form, the only piece of beauty on this godforsaken dump of a beach.

He staggered to his feet, savouring the delicious irony in the fact that, on the first night in a long time that he'd remained sober, he'd awoke feeling like he had the world's worst hangover. He was also displeased to discover that his crustacean friend had returned in the night and pinched another huge chunk out of his thumb. His hair felt gross and salty, his clothes torn and sandy, his body aching and sore, his last fuse close to blowing…

"£^(/ this for a laugh" Reno growled as his foot sank into the powdery sand. He decided to leave his shoe there and carry on barefoot. 

Reno caught sight of something long, pointy, metallic and unanimously hideous sticking out of the thing in the distance. Suddenly, he realised that the hulk of a town in the distance was undoubtedly Junon. Only Junon would ever wish to bring back the junky eyesore his Shinra peers had called the 'Sister Ray'. An eyesore it may have been but Reno had never seen such a beautiful sight in his entire life. The limping redhead looked skywards and thanked whoever was up there. Junon was within walking distance. Long walking distance, sure but…

But then there was the small matter of getting there with a sick Yuffie and a pair of aching, mutinous legs that Reno didn't trust to keep him upright.

"Oh what is your goddamn _problem?_" Reno screamed skywards to the very entity he had just thanked. "Do you want to make my life a living hell? Is that your personal goal? Well?"

The sky answered with a small, icy drop of rain that landed on the end on Reno's nose, a full stop at the end of this whole sorry tale. Then another. Then another. Freezing cold rain, dripping slowly from the dull, sullen grey clouds overhead. 

"This SUCKS!" Reno yelled hoarsely, stamping his foot like a spoilt child. His toes momentarily disappeared into the cold, damp powdery sand. "What more are you gonna do, huh? Strike me with a £^(/!~' lightning bolt? You take away the one I loved, and you wanna take _her_ too?" he jabbed an accusing finger at the air around the peacefully slumbering Yuffie "You wanna take my friends away? You wanna make me pay? Well go for it! Go for it, you son of a bitch! I'm waiting!"

A hollow crack of thunder echoed far in the distance, beyond Junon, lingering like a bruise before fading away behind the churn of the grey dishwater waves.

Reno breathed deeply and shook his head, grimy strands of salty red hair whipping at his face. He turned his head. Yuffie was stirring in the cold sand furrow her ceaseless shifting in the night had dug.

"Best get going before the rain really starts" Reno told himself calmly, his temper evaporated, padding barefoot along the damp sand. His dark blue trousers were torn around his ankles and flapping like little flags in the bitter sea breeze.

Leaning down, he peered at Yuffie's face, so close his shallow breathing further warmed her skin, fuelling the dying fever beneath. Hidden by a mask of long, tangled hair the colour of dark chocolate, he could just about see the pale lilac-grey orbs that were her eyes pull open and scan her surroundings briefly. 

Yuffie's hand reached up sluggishly and pushed back the wayward locks, tucking them behind her ear. Her eyes, feverish but calm, studied Reno's face intently.

"You look hideous" she announced sincerely, her voice rough and raspy.

"You're no oil-painting yourself, kid" Reno grinned, relief written on every part of his handsome face. "But seriously, how're ya feeling this morning?"

Yuffie stretched herself out gingerly like a cat in the sun, grimacing with obvious pain. "Like someone beat me with a mallet" she croaked weakly. "My head's on fire and I think someone tied my stomach in a knot" she ran her hand over her tank top, feeling for rips. "Oh, and I got sand everywhere"

"Believe me, I know how that feels" Reno reached out and put his hand to her forehead. A dull heat emanated from her pale olive skin, but nothing to rival the raging furnace-fire that had burned so fiercely last night "Well, it's not as bad as yesterday" he declared professionally, taking his hand away and putting it down on the cool sand where it promptly sank. 

"I can't remember yesterday," Yuffie said, placing her hand over her sore eyes, and this was partly true. She could remember everything up till her fall into the mako pit…everything else was a blur. 

Well…not everything…everything that really mattered was as clear as day to her.

"Good thing too, 'cos you were sick as a dog" Reno said tactfully, grinning all the while. "Looked like death on horseback"

"Thanks" Yuffie grimaced with the pain as she forced herself into a sitting position. Her weak, aching arms immediately gave up on her and she fell back heavily, crying out as her arm was twisted into a position just a little less painful than when she fell from Dao-Chao-the true reason behind the huge arm guard and leg brace.

"Whoa" Reno said warningly "Don't overdo it, I kinda need you conscious today," He pointed into the distance. "Junon's not far. If we push ourselves, we'll make it in under two hours" 

Yuffie nodded light-headedly. Her head, which had previously felt like it was full of helium gas, had suddenly begun to throb ceaselessly like a rotten tooth. "I'm impressed," she said huskily, a voice that sent not altogether unpleasant shivers down Reno's spine, a faint smile playing at the corners of her pallid lips.

"With what?" Reno asked distractedly, feeling blindly for the string that had bound his hair the previous day. He felt none. He cursed himself for not finding his Ribbon. Then he cursed the Ribbon for refusing to be found. It wasn't quite right just thinking curses, so he gave up on that and began to scrabble in the sand for some unknown object.

"You haven't insulted me once this morning. Well, apart from the 'death on horseback' thing. Must be a new world record for you" Yuffie husked, propping herself up in the sand with her good arm, relieved to discover that she no longer felt as weak as a day-old giraffe.

Reno scowled. "I can be nasty if you want," he said sullenly, drawing himself into his standard hunched-over posture. He didn't say anything more. He was too busy thinking.

Yuffie didn't say anything either, not wanting to spoil his seemingly good mood. When Reno was being nice to her…a rarity, true…but when it happened, she felt…well… _good_. In fact, even when he was being a complete idiot she felt like that. Yuffie lacked the words to describe this feeling, even to herself, because she was so un-acquainted with it. 

If it had been anyone else, they would have realised that they were falling for Reno. 

But Yuffie had little or no concept of this particular emotion, and at the tender age of 18 was still under the belief that 'love' was simply a concept thought up to sell Valentines cards and copies of the Karma Sutra.  She closed her eyes and relished the soft sand beneath her aching, feverish body. Despite feeling slightly less that awful, she had realised and accepted that she was very ill. She too had seen Cloud suffering at the hands of Mako Poisoning, and knew that no matter how much better she felt she still had quite a battle ahead of her. And that meant rest. And rest inevitably meant boredom.

"Yuffie" Reno said suddenly, thoughtfully, not lifting his piercingly cold eyes from the imaginary landmark they were so fiercely trained on. The tight-lipped, wide-eyed expression on his face was a mirror image of his earlier expression, back in the cave, when he had looked so pensive Yuffie had mistook it for sadness and her volatile teenage emotions had gone a little doolally and…whoa, talk about raging hormones…she'd actually felt like _hugging_ Reno…

"Mmm?" she asked, closing her eyes again, the early morning sun low in the east, giving off precious little warmth (Not that Yuffie needed warmth right now) 

"It's about Aeris…" Reno knew he would end up regretting opening this can of worms. These weren't your average pink, slimy earthworms, the kind you cut up and performed gross experiments on as kids. These were big bitches, equipped with ice-pick teeth. These were Lameious worms. And these bitches could bite you any time they liked.

Of course, they often bit Reno.

Yuffie's eyes sprang open against her will. Only Cloud and Tifa still talked about Aeris, but these were usually small references, like 'If only Aeris were here now' or 'you sound just like Aeris'. It was almost like the subject of the late Cetra had evolved into some sort of taboo. And she was happy to keep it like that. She missed Aeris an awful lot, and instead of confronting her emotions she tried to push them to the back of her mind, where they gathered and festered and all came back to haunt her at times like now. All at once, she hated Reno for unintentionally hurting her, but felt sorry for him. 

"Aeris?" she asked uncertainly. Why would Reno ever want to know anything about Aeris…?

Reno knew what she was thinking. It was written all over her face, like someone had grabbed a bright red marker and scrawled it. _'If only she knew' _one part of him said. _'She's better off not knowing' _the other advised.

"When…when she…" The poisonous words burned Reno's tongue as they tried to escape his mouth. "When Aeris was with you…I mean, AVALANCHE…did she…did she ever…" He shook his head to clear the inhibitions cluttering his emotions up like cobwebs. "Did she and Cloud ever…"

"…Ever 'get it together'?" Yuffie asked, sensing that though it may not have been the exact or appropriate wording, he was thinking along those lines.

Reno didn't say anything. He just nodded ever so slightly, turning his bewitchingly beautiful blue eyes to Yuffie's pale face. A peculiar feeling settled in the pit of her stomach, a feeling she was beginning to get used to, and though she didn't want to continue, she did. Her words were tangled in knots with her feelings, and she spat them out carefully in case she said something she regretted.

"I don't know if it was…I know there was definitely something there. Something…" she fumbled for words to describe this alien concept "…there" she finished. She would have shrugged if her shoulders didn't kill. "I don't quite know how to describe it…"

Reno accepted this begrudgingly. The wound wasn't just wasn't just trickling. It was gushing.

"Why did you want to know?" Yuffie asked tentatively, sensing that all was not right.

"No reason in particular" Reno shrugged, his back complaining. "Just curiosity"

'_Yeah right' _Yuffie thought surreptitiously _'Like I'm that dense'_

"Oh, okay" she said nonchalantly, as a wave of nauseous exhaustion washed over her and she flopped back in the sand, prompting a distracted but concerned look from Reno.

Both sat in uncomfortable silence for a while, feeling the tension that buzzed around their heads like little dragonflies, until Reno broke the silence.

"I can try and get a Chocobo if you like" he said remotely, staring into the distance.

Yuffie nodded soundlessly, closing her eyes, wanting just to sleep, hating herself for putting Reno through such pain.

"I'll be back soon," he said just as emotionlessly. And then, without looking at Yuffie, without looking at anything but that spot in the distance, he went.

Yuffie was less than glad to see him go.

_Poor ol' Reno. He's my favourite male character yet I punish him with such a tragic past. And Yuffie's my favourite female…so it makes sense that, to balance it out, I have to give her some sort of nastiness in her past. This chapter was cool to write 'cos I found it really easy and I just zipped through it. Mistakes have undoubtedly been made, and while I view it as my best chapter (it might not be, but hey) of course it's up to you to decide. And I'd like to know what you think (Comments, reviews, etc, to TioRankP@hotmail.com) _

_Thank you to all the guys who've praised or at least read this story, especially Poison Ivy and Korngrynder. It means a lot to me!_

_TIO RANK P/DINCHT _^-^__


	6. Chapter 6-Dumb

Chapter 6-Dumb

_'If you're too dumb to work it out then that's your problem'_

_Korei Brynne _

_'I never claimed to be your saviour,_

_I said I had a dirty mouth._

_Stop analysing my behaviour,_

_If you're too dumb to work it out._

_I've got to keep myself together,_

_You know I hate to disappoint,_

_A masochistic lamb to slaughter,_

_I think maybe you miss the point'_

_"Dumb"_

_Garbage_

Elena Leonhardson and Tifa Lockheart were the first to wake. Both women sat silently around the table, mourning the potential loss of their friends. 

"They'll come back," Elena had said. She had never really clicked with Tifa, although the two could get on to a reasonable degree. The shared feeling of emptiness and loss had brought them together around the coffee-stained, cigarette-burnt table.

Both women were very similar, although Elena lacked Tifa's common sense and Tifa lacked Elena's blind loyalty. Both were very beautiful, committed to their ideas and beliefs, full of respect and admiration for their friends, incredibly sensitive underneath tough hides.

Both were also extremely insecure. 

"You do think they'll come back?" Elena said in a small voice, an hour later, a seemingly endless hour filled with largely unbroken silence and a little glimmer of hope when there was a knock at the door and both women had jumped up and opened the door, each expecting to see the weary but smiling face of a friend and his/her companion, but confronted with the miserable face of the postman delivering a water bill to Mrs Elmyra Wallace.

"Reno's tough" Tifa replied, truly believing this. From what she had seen of Reno, if you took away his complex shell of selfishness, arrogance, egotism, moodiness and general suckiness (a hard task, even for someone as compassionate as Tifa) what remained was a dedicated, tough young man committed to the people he cared for, a man who would never give up even if his life was in danger. "And Yuffie's every bit as strong…and obstinate. She can look after herself, and together they have enough stubbornness to spread around the whole of the Planet. They won't give in"

"I know, I know that…but…" Elena flicked back a lock of recently cut, honey-coloured hair; her earthy brown eyes clouded with worry "Something's bothering me. It's like…a feeling I can't shake off. A feeling that something awful has happened…" Elena raised the corners of her mouth in a forced smile "But I'm being silly, aren't I? I always worry too much. Reno always tells me off for it…"

"Then don't worry" a male voice came from the top of the stairs. Both women raised their eyes to the darkened hallways. 

Rude descended the stairs in his typical awkward hunched manner, his height and the low ceiling a lethal combination. "Elena, you're forgetting what Reno's like. Tifa's right. And with Yuffie fuelling his temper, he's gonna be more than fired up if anything does try and hurt him"

Elena watched as Rude flipped his sunglasses down over his liquid Mako eyes and straightened the collar of his shirt. He didn't sit down, just loomed above them like a giant statue, silent and unmoving.

"Rude, why don't you sit down?" Tifa asked uncomfortably, pulling out a chair. Rude accepted with a polite nod and sat down, leaning on the table tiredly.

There were several moments of quiet, uncomfortable silence. Rude's constant, unbroken solemnity caused uneasiness even among the likes of Barret and even the raucous Cid. The only person immune to this effect was Reno. Whether this was down to the length of time they'd been friends or the fact that Reno's boisterousness often brought Rude out of his shell (even if it was only to tell Reno, in a slightly embarrassed tone, to calm down) was unclear. Rude was a man of many, many mysteries.

"How long have they been missing?" he asked, tapping his chunky fingers on the worn, dog-eared table gently.

"I don't really know" Tifa said honestly, drawing invisible patterns on the table with her finger. "I guess about fifteen hours or so. Maybe more" 

Rude nodded contemplatively.

Tifa was silent.

After a few moments of apprehensive silence, Elena coughed awkwardly. Tifa and Rude turned their eyes to her.

Elena suddenly felt incredibly nervous, the way she always did when people stared at her. And the way they stared…it was as if what she was about to say was crucial, as they were waiting for her to make a mistake, to prove herself incompetent… 

"Umm…well, I was thinking that today we could, um, go and look around the crater, you know, in case they're there…" her voice trailed off as her nerves got the better of her.

Rude and Tifa sat for a moment in silence. Tifa, not wanting to say anything in case the silent, scary Rude opposed it. Rude not saying anything because it was against his nature to take the lead.

"…It's a great idea," Tifa said finally, glancing at Rude from the corner of her eyes. She watched as, seemingly in slow motion, Rude nodded and folded his arms.

"Well done Elena" Rude agreed quietly. Elena beamed, the way she always did when either one of her male cohorts gave her plans the thumbs-up. Rude wanted to smile at his companion's expression of childlike delight, at the way it lit up her round face like the lights on a pinball machine, at the way it illuminated her deep brown eyes like flashlights in the night, at the way it creased her pretty face into such an attractive shape…but he kept his poker face. It was not in his nature to smile. It wasn't in his nature to find such things amusing, even endearing.

It wasn't _supposed_ to be, anyway. 

"But let's just hope it doesn't come to that" Tifa said.

_'Like the naked leads the blind_

_I know I'm selfish, I'm unkind._

_Sucker love I always find_

_Someone to bruise, and leave behind._

_All alone in space and time,_

_There's nothing here, _

_But what here's mine._

_Something borrowed, something blue,_

_Every me and every you'_

_"Every me and every you"_

_Placebo_

As Tifa, Elena and Rude sat around the table in relative silence, far away in the barren wastelands that were once home to the most primitive yet most powerful civilisation ever known, four figures gathered round a glass altar suspended above a still pool of clear water. Somewhere in those crystalline depths lay the only trace of the once world-dominating power of the Cetra, the mysterious orb known colloquially to all as the White Materia. It had a scientific name, but like the sectors of Midgar, nobody cared to remember it. 

The first was a looming behemoth of a man, cloaked in a long black jacket that reached down to the soles of huge black boots. The collar of the jacket covered his dark-skinned face, from his chin to the end of his chunky, misshapen nose. A face, skin the colour of weak coffee, eyes the colour of burnt-out coals, peered out from above the collar, beady eyes unmoving, focused on something only he could see. The second was a shorter, leaner man dwarfed by the huge size of the first man. He was graced with a short crest of vivid scarlet spikes atop his head, his angular face not altogether unattractive, with bleached blue eyes and a spiteful, pensive expression. Beside him was a young and short woman, slim, dainty and elflike in comparison to the two men. Her deep emerald green eyes glimmered with hidden intelligence as she pursed her lips in thought. Her hair, short and spiky, was a faded auburn and dressed with a bright red beret tilted at a rakish angle. She had a creamy complexion, and appeared to be mixed-race, the balance tipping slightly more towards a Costa del Sol style tan. Certain features appeared to have been taken straight from the behemoth before her. 

Bringing up the rear of the group was a beautiful woman who possessed an uncanny resemblance to a young, perhaps seventeen year old Tifa. Her hair was long, silky and black, tied back in a loose 

plait over her slender left shoulder. Her eyes were also a bleached blue, not quite as cold as the man's eyes, framed with a thick border of black eyelashes, thin black eyebrows knotted together in confusion. She was flicking a thin silver ring that went through the middle of her nose in an absent manner. 

"See how her blood still stains the glass," the tall one pointed out in a voice akin to that of Rude's. His great hand moved slowly towards the long-dry pools of dark claret that cast eerie red shadows on the water below. The enormous man traced the rough out line of the dried-up pools with morbid yet silent fascination. 

The shorter of the two females crouched beside him, dressed entirely in red, red silk shirt, red jeans and red trainers, sticking out like a sore thumb among the cold blues and greens of the secret city. She didn't touch the dried gore but kept her bright, inquisitive green eyes trained on the outline the larger man was tracing.

"Surely the cells must contain they key to her power?" she asked in an eerily childlike tone, stretching her slender arm out so she could touch the cold glass. Her thin fingertips ran over it, inches away from the congealed blood.

"Korei, you are right, to a degree," the first man said calmly, pulling his hand slowly away from the marks. He turned his great head to face the girl, tiny in comparison. She stared up at him, perhaps in awe of his prodigious stature, perhaps fearful of it. "However it is not the cells that contain the key to her power but the DNA. The building blocks of life"

"And what do you plan to do with those DNA's, Shinoda?" the second female asked, voice gravelly, hand resting on her leather-clad hips. Her posture and the defiant look on her face were also echoes of Tifa way back when in her AVALANCHE days. "Are you gonna try and mess us up further?"

"If you're too dumb to work it out then that's your problem" Korei said spitefully, not looking up. "Isn't that right, Tye? Isn't Juvi dumb?"

Tye Reynold, the scarlet-haired man, said nothing. His cold eyes were trained on his feet awkwardly, wanting to say something but deathly afraid of the consequences.

Juventa Darkhart delivered a scathing glare to the younger girl. "I know what you want to do," she continued, keeping one eye on the endlessly irksome Korei "But how are you going to accomplish it? She's been dead for two years now. Surely she cannot have been preserved well enough for your plans?"

"Juventa, my dear" Shinoda Brynne, father of Korei Brynne, said patronisingly. He lifted his great hand to his chin and smiled very, very slightly. "We cannot rely on hope alone. If the waters have not preserved her, then we have a very good backup plan"

"And, what is that?" Juventa asked, swinging her long raven plait over her slender shoulder and crossing her arms over her chest. The bold, defiant look on her face had not even faltered, despite Shinoda's confrontation.

"It's rather simple" Shinoda explained calmly, unabashed by Juventa's defiance "We have already proved that it is possible to alter a human being so that they develop the characteristics of another species. That was proved in Hojo's Jenova project and more recently Nguyen's Beowulf project. So we take a willing volunteer and inject their unborn baby with a recovered DNA sample" Shinoda leered, showing a row of dirty yellow teeth. "That's where you come in…_volunteers_" his last word was sneered, a toothsome shark grin highlighting Shinoda's biting sarcasm.

Juventa exchanged glances with Tye, who merely shrugged ever so slightly, hands tucked in the pockets of black trousers, cold-eyed gaze on his black trainers.

"The reason I did not…_dispose_ of you…along with the others is because I knew I could use you" Shinoda moved his great form with a strange breed of grace across so that he was standing beside Juventa. She automatically steeled herself for a blow, her cheeks muscles twitching in agitation.

"You are a fine woman, Juvi," he murmured, brushing his hand across her cheek. Juvi flinched, all her muscles tensing further. She hated the feel of his rough, awkward hands touching her, hated his eerily calm voice, hated everything he stood for and everything he did. For a fleeting moment, she wished that he had hit her instead of stroked her cheek. Maybe she wouldn't have felt so violated "I realised that from the moment I saw you. I was very tempted to take you for myself"

Juvi shuddered involuntarily. Shinoda didn't notice.

"But I realised something" Shinoda moved his hand away from Juvi and turned to face Tye. The younger man's icy blue eyes were full of primal, animal fear and his muscles and tendons were tensed to the point of snapping. Adrenaline rushed through his veins; pouring life and energy into limbs that wanted to flail and hit and attack but were at the same time paralysed 

"Even though I will admit I am not fond of this young man, he too is strong. Stronger than he will ever know" A dry, deep chuckle "Perhaps he does know his own strength. Perhaps he cares not to acknowledge it. Nonetheless, he is strong, like you" 

The younger man's expression was that of a caged animal, scared, defiant, angry. Where Shinoda would probably never hurt Juvi, the great man would not hesitate to harm Tye. 

 "You would be far too useful to waste, Juvi. The people of Mideel are so strong, so resilient, so full of life and energy. You were born, raised in a town that sat right on top of the Lifestream. Right on top of all that knowledge and power. And you survived when that power gushed out, ruining your town and killing others. You survived, became stronger, you _evolved…_" Shinoda let this word hang for a while, savouring the meaning, eyes focused on Juvi's pretty face "You survived when it gushed out the second time, two years ago. Your strengths are admirable. To taint you would be senseless"

Shinoda's gaze fell upon Tye "To put things bluntly I plan to breed you. Improve you. And then…"

"…Why don't you just leave us _alone_?!" Juvi snapped suddenly, shrilly, slamming her foot down on the glass. A small spider web crack appeared beneath the heel of her black boot.

Almost immediately, Shinoda's huge arm shot out and with a vile crack Juvi was on the floor, clutching her mouth, quivering. The blow was so fast nobody had seen or even anticipated the impact. Tye's narrow-eyed glare suddenly changed into a wide-eyed look of shock, anger and above all, fear. He looked at his feet, not knowing what else to do. 

"I don't appreciate insolence" Shinoda said coldly, all traces of the twisted humour he had shown gone. "I don't care if you are male, female, child or adult. If you disobey me, you will pay the price. Let that be a lesson to you, Tye"

Juvi looked up slowly, blinking back hot, acidic tears, refusing to let herself cry. Her blue eyes peered up from under her thick eyelashes, hand pressed firmly against her mouth, red runnels dribbling down her chin, staining her sky blue shirt with dark red blooms. Her head was spinning, the world doubling, tripling, never settling down, spinning this way and that constantly. The blow had been very hard. She swallowed, nausea rising fast as the metallic taste of warm blood filled her mouth and coursed down her chin and throat. She wiped her mouth and stared uncomprehendingly at the crimson that came away. 

"Korei. Leave them here for now. There is no way out. We shall explore the ruins for a while and let them come to a decision" Shinoda turned to them one last time.

"Either you obey, do as I tell you, or you lose your lives in the most horrible way" he shrugged nonchalantly. "It's up to you"

His shark grin was the last thing Juventa Darkhart saw before she finally allowed herself to black out.

_Another psychotic chapter, I agree. I'm beginning to like my new characters, though at first I found them very hard to work on because they were just created like that (clicks fingers) initially, no thought went into them. But now I've built them up. Just think of Shinoda as a baddie-version of Morpheus in 'The Matrix' (those of you that have seen it) his name taken from Mike Shinoda, Linkin Park's second vocalist. Juvi is based visually on the woman in the video for Linkin Park's 'Crawling', Tye is based visually on Chester Bennington in the video for Linkin Park's 'Papercut' (Minus the glasses, and not quite as good-looking) with his name taken from Tye Zamora, Alien Ant Farm's gurning bassist. And Korei…well, she's totally my imagination. So if you're not acquainted with Linkin Park/The Matrix, you may be a little confused. Sorry!!! _

_Comments, etc, to TioRankP@hotmail.com _

_TIO _^-^  


	7. Chapter 7-A Matter Of Life Or Death

Chapter 7-A matter of life or death

****

'Cowardice isn't the issue. The issue is this, and you'd better answer truthfully, 'cos if you don't, your life could well be on the line' 

_Tye Reynold_

_'Have you ever had the odds stacked up so high,_

_You need a strength you just don't possess?_

_And has it ever come down to do or die?_

_You've got to rise above the rest_

_No…? Well…_

_I never had to knock on wood_

_But I know someone who has_

_Which makes me wonder if I should_

_Which makes me wonder if_

_I never had to knock on wood_

_And I'm glad I haven't yet,_

_Because I'm sure it isn't good…_

_That's the impression that I get'_

_"The impression that I get'_

_The Mighty Mighty Bosstones_

_They're speeding down the seemingly endless stretch of featureless, lifeless shore that led to Junon when he first realises something is wrong. She has been leaning against him since they set out, exhausted by a combination of illness and what he guesses must be something akin to trauma._

_At first, he thinks she is just asleep. He realises she has passed out again when he places his hand on her forehead and feels a raging fire smouldering beneath her skin, fiercer than the one that had tormented her so in the night._

_He shouts her name, alarmed, digging his heels into the side of the huge yellow bird. It squeals in surprise and halts, nearly throwing him and the unconscious girl in his arms off._

_He jumps off, landing in an ungainly heap with the girl, and with a final cry the Chocobo departs. He is too panic-stricken to notice this, gently slapping the girl's burning, sweat-beaded cheeks, calling her name over and over. She doesn't respond._

_His shaky hands feel for a pulse. He breathes a sight of relief when he finds one, a strong enough pulse to keep her going for a while, at least. She is breathing too, but shallowly, each breath rattling, wheezy. She seems to be struggling for breath. It sounds like she has pneumonia, something he is quite well acquainted with, but he knows it is not pneumonia that ails her. It is something he knows, but will not accept, can very easily kill her. It is something for which there is no easy cure. Doctors can only make her comfortable, ease the pain and fever for while, knock her out so she won't feel it._

_She doesn't even stir as he grabs the shirt from around her waist. Her shorts are ripped at the leg and she shudders against her will as the cold air meets the burning bare skin of her upper calves and lower thighs. The air is still cold, despite it being midday, and the biting sea breeze doesn't help. He feels guilty as he quietly makes his way barefoot down the sharp shingle, shirt in hand. He kneels in the wet pebbles, the remnants of his trousers suddenly absorbing the cold brine. He places the tattered, grey remnants of the shirt in the path of a wave. The foamy breaker washes over it, trying to suck it back. Still kneeling, he wrings the shirt out over the shining pebbles and as he begins to go back to her he hears something…something like…splashing…_

_A long, tapering arrowhead tail the colour of a dirty sapphire slaps the surface of the water as it descends below, sending up a huge spray of curdling foam. He catches sight of it as it disappears behind the screen of white water, and with suspended horror realises what he has just seen, what is lurking in the dark depths of the Middle Ocean, what has followed them all this way..._

"Juventa…Juvi…."

Go away…

"Juvi! Wake up!"

_Leave me alone…_

"Ju-VI!"

"Mmph…"

Juvi reluctantly pulled her heavy eyelids open. 

Tye's angular, half-smiling face, surrounded by a bright, headache-inducing montage of glassy blues and greens, slowly came into focus. The crest of blood-red spines atop his head stood out like a fried egg on a mantelpiece. A few of the shorter spikes at the very front of the crest were flopping lethargically to the side, and every now and then a thin hand would reach up and try to flick it vainly back into position. Juvi noticed that a there was a long black tattoo coiled up the length of his slender left arm, half covered by the short sleeve of his black, button-up shirt. 

"Thought you weren't never gonna wake up" Tye said frankly, sitting back down on the cold glass of the altar in a graceless manner. He pushed one of the shorter, more rebellious spikes back up into a standing position, where it promptly flopped back again. "But I s'pose that would've been over-reacting" he studied the blue-grey bruise forming on Juvi's face and added "He _did _hit you pretty hard though"

The sudden rush of harsh pain in her jaw, and the sour, acidic taste of dried blood reminded her of what Tye was nattering about. She could tell without even looking that her jaw was swollen grotesquely, and that she probably resembled the Elephant Man in some way or another. She reached up languidly and pulled away a few thick locks of matted black hair that were stuck to her chin and throat.

"Mmph" Juvi repeated, testing her jaw slightly. It was stiff and achy and felt like someone had smashed a sledgehammer into her face.

This vaguely amused Tye, who grinned widely "S'okay" he said almost cheerfully, showing a line of neat white teeth. "I don't really expect you to talk. I know I wouldn't if my jaw was out here" he held his hand out about half a metre away from his jaw and grinned some more, trying in his typical clumsy Tye manner to make light of the situation. "It's gotta be sore, huh?"

Juvi closed her faded blue eyes against the sudden sharp pain in her head. The brilliance of the ice-covered ruin walls around her hurt her head. "Hmmph" she agreed, nodding as much as her aching neck would let her. 

There was a moment of silence. The ever-chatty Tye had stopped talking, which was actually rather unnerving. Juvi opened her eyes again. Tye had stopped grinning and suddenly looked very contemplative. It seemed that his expression was constantly on the move; changing from one mood to the other so fast she could hardly keep up.

"Y'know, we're in pretty deep here," Tye finally announced matter-of-factly, scratching one of the shaved sides of his head in a questioning manner. 

"Mph" Juvi agreed lethargically, watching as his expression turned to one of confusion, then amusement, then thought.

"I really don't know what to do" he reached up to his thin, light brown eyebrow and began tugging at a little silver ring placed at the end of his left eyebrow, shining brightly in the reflected sunlight along with his glassy blue eyes, the resulting effect making his eyes look almost translucent. 

Juvi nodded gently in agreement. She looked and felt like she was on the brink of sleep. She let her gritty, sore eyes close again and placed a heavy arm over them, blocking out the painfully bright light.

"I mean…do we just go along with whatever the big guy wants and go against everything we believe in, you know, let him experiment and all that?" Tye looked down at the black, tapering spikes etched in his arm, spiralling up it like the long tendrils of an octopus or squid to his elbow where they faded into thin strips, eventually disappearing into the pale skin of his upper arm, under the soft cloth of the black shirt. "Or do we risk it all and try and break free?"

"To tell you the truth" Juvi said slowly and cautiously, moving her jaw little, her words slurred like those of a drunkard "I don't know"

It's was Tye's turn to nod. "For some reason, I'm not at all scared" he said thoughtfully, almost confused. Then, hurriedly, "But that doesn't mean I'm gonna go attack him. I mean," he grinned again, this time in disbelief rather than amusement "…You saw the size of that bloke, right? His hands are about the size of my head…" He placed two lean hands by the sides of his head as a not-very-good comparison "…You saw 'em, didn't you?"

"I felt 'em," Juvi reminded dryly, the throb refusing to leave her completely.

"Oh, yeah, 'course" Tye said apologetically. Juvi had quickly worked out that Tye wasn't the most subtle nor articulate of young men. Young…? How did she know he was young? He might have been older than he seemed. She placed a mental bet with herself that he was younger than her twenty years of age.

"How old are you?" she asked suddenly, moving her jaw a little more, easing it back into action little by little.

"Hmm? Me?" Tye pointed to himself and scanned his surroundings as if there was anyone else around, surprised at the odd question "I'm twenty-two. You?"

 "Twenty" Juvi was disappointed to have lost the bet with herself. She was also surprised that he was older than her, especially considering that he acted so naïve, so immature, so…_childlike…_

"I know" Tye smiled wearily, looking roughly his age now, hiding his annoyingly perfect white teeth behind thin lips "You're surprised, right? I've never been too big on maturity. Something I picked up from my brothers"

Juvi allowed herself to smile a little, the steady ache in her jaw lessening a little. The pulsing throb that had been so tenacious earlier was now completely gone.

"No-one guesses my age first time," Tye said conversationally, playing absently with his eyebrow ring again "They usually guess about seventeen or something"

No response.

"Um…" Tye changed targets, stabbing sporadically at a loose flap hanging from his brown desert boots. "Okay, so, you know there's a town that sits on top of this basin" he gestured up "It's called the 'Icicle Inn'. If we escape, we can probably get there in about half-hour"

"And how do we escape?" Juvi said sharply. Tye's seeming stupidity was beginning to grate.

Tye grinned again. Juvi came to the conclusion that he either had a chronic twitch in his jaw or was just trying to impress her with his teeth, those irritatingly perfect teeth. "Can you swim?" he asked, beaming.

Juvi suddenly remembered the pools of lucid water either side of her.

"These springs are filled from above" again Tye gestured, now looking very thoughtful and precise "I know your jaw hurts, but it's our only chance of escape"

Juvi's eyes flickered open, the same colour as the deeper parts of the huge pools. She stared up uncomprehendingly at Tye's renewed grin.

"You want me to swim?" she said uncertainly, eyeing the depth.

Tye nodded, still grinning. "Yeah, pretty much" he agreed amiably. Then, as an afterthought, "Oh, but don't worry, I'm a strong swimmer. If you get tired or something I can help" he gave a gracious smile "So that's not a problem" 

Juvi nodded, still uncertain.

Tye's grin evaporated into sudden thoughtfulness. He pushed his feet over the edge of the beautiful glass altar until his desert-boots were making tiny ripples in the translucent depths, the light sandy colour slowly darkening to muddy brown.

Juvi sat up suddenly, and immediately regretted it. Her head spun dangerously for a moment, and her shaky hand automatically found its way to her head, pressing lightly against her temple where it rested until she found some sort of stability again. She smiled weakly at a worried-looking Tye, trying to disguise her discomfort. She was also aware of nagging pain at the very base of her skull, where her neck began, throbbing to a just-bearable crescendo.

She looked at Tye, who gave her a slightly worried look.

"You show me where to go" she began quietly, taking a sideways glance at the deep pool "And I'll follow. All the way" she looked up, expressionless.  

"Are you sure you're up to it?" Tye asked, concerned.

"I'm no coward…" Juvi began, but Tye interrupted "I never said you were. Cowardice isn't the issue. The issue is this, and you'd better answer truthfully, 'cos if you don't, your life could well be on the line: Do you feel up to it?"

"Try stopping me" Juvi finished.__

 "It…it…"

Reno pointed to the sea, stammering to an imaginary audience "It…it followed us?"

The foam settled as quickly as it had appeared. The surface of the dirty, dishwater-grey water was still again.

"No way…" Reno shook his head in disbelief "This is too screwed up to be real"

He scanned the bleak horizon again, the grey of the clouds melding with the grey of the water.

There was no blue arrowhead tail, no shadow under the water, nothing.

Reno stood for a moment, staring at the sea. Half of him wanted the creature, wanted Lameious (if, indeed, it was Lameious and not just his tired eyes playing evil tricks) to emerge from the waves, just to prove that he wasn't going mad. But nothing happened.

Then he remembered the reason he had come down to the seashore in the first place.

"Yuffie!" he exclaimed, rushing back up the sharp shingle, rag in hand. He knelt by her clumsily and began to dab frantically at her sweaty face, the cold rag sending uncontrollable shivers running down the young girl's slender, feverish body.

She didn't respond, lolling like a discarded ragdoll and looking like one too. Her hair, all static and saltwater, her skin pale and cold, her eyes closed, body thin and dirty. She was a pathetic sight.

Reno looked, alarmed, from her inert form to the huge junkyard that was Upper Junon. It was close, so close the dying yellow of the rusting metal, the twinkling but redundant lights of the airport and the smashed glass of what was once President Shinra's meeting room were all visible. 

Reno cast his eye along the short stretch of beach. Then, in typical rash Reno style, he decided what he was going to do.

Carefully, he reached under Yuffie's feather-light form and hoisted her over his shoulder. His back whined, quieter now, the burning sensation still lingering. She sprawled down his back untidily, but it was as close a he could get to making her comfortable. With her head resting on his chest, he began running, barefoot, clothed in dirty, seawater-stiff clothes and adorned with a crown of unruly red spines, away from the thing lurking in the depths of the cold ocean, away from the torn, sodden rags and warm, fever-heated sand. Away from the swiftly gathering storm clouds ready to rain down on them again.

"You're gonna be alright" he muttered, more to comfort himself than her. "I'm not gonna let you down this time. I'm gonna get you home"

After five long, dragging minutes he was a tiny redheaded dot on the horizon. The only sign that they had been there at all was a series of deep footprints, and, of course, Reno's soaked, torn shirt.

_Another stupidly short chapter. It's not that I can't be bothered, it's just that I don't want to bore people with looong chapters that drag on and on…besides, I'm keeping them short and, I like to think, sweet. Also, I like to finish a chapter before I run out of ideas, so I can begin the next one with plenty of ideas. Email me and let me know what you think of the story, and especially the new characters. I need your help in building them up, as I think right now, at this early stage, they're still kinda shallow._

_Big thanks to Catalina for her inspiration, Lechuza for her tireless support and (insert your name here) thank you too!_

_TIO _^-^


	8. Chapter Eight-Unforgiven

Chapter 8-Unforgiven

**__**

_'You all think I'm some lazy, arrogant, worthless slum-kid with an attitude problem. Well you know what? Maybe I'm sick of it now'_

_Reno _

_'What I've felt_

_What I've known_

_Never shined through in what I've shown_

_Never be, never see_

_Won't see what might have been'_

_"The Unforgiven"_

_Metallica_

_They had almost given up hope._

_It was now approaching sunset on the second day. The pretty brunette, the petite blonde, the bespectacled female in the lab coat and the wife and daughter of the huge, dark-skinned brute had stayed while the others had gone and paid a visit to the last place the missing two were last seen, the huge crater at the very north of the Planet. They had returned a few hours late, bearing nothing but a discarded, ripped yellow sneaker, a couple of tangled parachutes, and severely dampened spirits._

_The sky was darkening rapidly outside, turning from a dirty, rusty orange to a filthy grey-purple, and still no news. Not even a sign of their missing friends. 'Still,' thought the brunette, tapping idly on the table as a means of passing time, 'No news is good news…isn't it?'_

_The brunette and the four others were still arranged around the table, the men dotted around the large aircraft hanger adjacent to the house in various states of bored inactivity, when there was a quiet but definite knock on the door._

_The blonde looked timidly from the brunette, to the bespectacled mouse-haired one, and got up slowly, shrugging her slender shoulder slightly, unsure as to who would be knocking on their door, especially now as day was giving way to a dirty dusk._

_She turned the rusty handle, and with a high-pitched creak the old, wooden door opened, and in the doorway, bedraggled, tired, dirty, was…_

"Reno!" Elena cried out loudly, half in surprise and half relief, prompting the others to look up in disbelief. She turned clumsily, running from the doorway, allowing him as much space as he needed. Her eyes were wide open, the size of huge dinner plates, and her small hands were clasped like a praying child's and tucked beneath her chin. 

"God, Reno, you look…awful…" Tifa said honestly, almost sadly, instantly taking pity on the bedraggled redhead. She had never seen him look so rough. His normally neat hair was all sticking out in 200 different directions, his bright blue eyes tired, half-closed and dull, clothes ripped and bloodied, body dirty and shredded, and what was that thing dangling from his shoulder…?

It took her a moment to work out he was holding Yuffie.

"Yuffie!" Elena gasped, covering her mouth with her hand, the other still tucked beneath her chin. "Wh…what happened to her? And you?"

"Yuffie…put her down…" Reno was out of breath, as if he'd been running. He made a slow, sluggish motion, as if to pass the girl to someone. His limbs appeared to be numb and useless and flopped like dead fish at his sides, and his battered, bruised legs were only just keeping him upright. The tattered, bloody remains of trouser legs hung loosely round his ankles, suspended from the ragged remains of trousers that were now more like shorts. A shredded jacket hung around his shoulders, shoulders that were hunched as if he had chronic back pain. There was no sign of his shirt, and his ancient battle-scars and strange collarbone tattoo were on display for all to see.  

"Oh!" Tifa leapt up and in her usual motherly manner took the unconscious slip of a girl from Reno, who slumped his shoulders even more, wincing a little. Elena looked at Shera, concerned-Reno rarely displayed feelings of pain unless they were really bad.

A rough voice from upstairs; "What's goin' on, Shera?" Cid yelled, having popped back in with Cloud to borrow some power tools and scrap metal from his horde of junk in the ample loft. 

"Never you boys mind" Shera hollered back patronisingly. "Reno and Yuffie just got back, and they're in a real state. You mind your own business up there and let us take care of things"

There was no reply. Cid rarely argued, just dictated, and he seemed more worried about finding his power drill and half a propeller than the plight of Yuffie and Reno.

Tifa cradled Yuffie like a baby, thin eyebrows knotted in worry. The younger girl seemed so small and infantile in her unconsciousness, and Tifa's maternal instincts were quickly getting the better of her. She was surprised at how light Yuffie felt, how unyielding her body was, how helpless and childlike she seemed. Yuffie's head, capped with a long, messy waterfall of sweat-matted hair, nestled against the soft, porcelain skin of Tifa's shoulder instinctively, like a child to a mother, and for a moment her eyelids fluttered and it looked like she might wake. After a moment, it was obvious that she was just caught up in the throes of some nightmare or other. Tifa shifted slightly and peered up to the gloom at the top of the stairs.

Cloud's anxious face peered back. 

Cloud shrugged, cocking his head to the side in a 'What's happening?' gesture. Tifa turned gently and showed him the tiny girl nestled in her arms. 

He responded with a wide-eyed, raised-eyebrow expression of worry. Tifa smiled gently and nodded, assuring him she had everything under control.

Cloud nodded back, used to this gesture by now, understanding that Tifa just wanted a chance to prove herself as useful and resourceful as him, but part…no, most of him decided against leaving her by herself. Reno was a bastard at the best of times. In his bedraggled, tired state he would be even worse, and Tifa was just too damn nice to argue back. He'd take advantage of her. Quietly, he crept down the stairs and joined her, not saying a word. Sighing, Tifa accepted his presence. 

"Reno…are you okay?" Elena asked worriedly, staring at her long-time friend, one-time lover. 

Reno didn't respond. He hadn't seen himself, but he knew he looked awful. The burn on his back had quickly become infected, and was now a huge mass of black, scorched flesh, red swelling and ugly purple infection hidden under a torn cloak of dirty blue. He walked in a hunched manner as if his back was stiff. The posture helped ease the newly awakened pain that was screaming from his neck to the small of his back, the pain that a dwindling supply of adrenaline had numbed up until this point. He stood dazedly for a moment, swaying very gently in the doorway, gulping in the smoky air like it was going out of fashion. Then he stopped, and, quietly, breathlessly; "…Can I sit down? I feel…a bit…dizzy"

"Oh! Of course" Elena busied herself shepherding him into a chair, mentally scolding herself for not being more resourceful. Shakily, Reno sat down, taking big gulps of cool air, trying to get his breath back. Elmyra leapt up as if she'd been burnt and immediately began breaking out the cold compresses and aspirin from the locked medicine cabinet for Yuffie. Shera took a disapproving glance from behind her huge frames at him, tutting to herself, and returning to her newspaper.

"Reno, what happened to her?" Tifa called from the adjoining living room, where she had Yuffie stretched out on the sofa. She ran her hand over Yuffie's sweaty face, brushing hair and sand from her face and cooling the fever with her hand. 

"Fell into…the mako pit…made her sick" Reno panted, letting out a series of loud, rattling coughs that were worryingly loud. "Ran as fast…as…could..." he stopped, taking in deeper gulps, filling his breathless lungs. Elena pushed a couple of small white aspirin over in his direction. He ignored them.

"Mako poisoning" Tifa said fearfully, looking at Cloud with frightened eyes. He gave her a grim look in return. Both could remember how badly Cloud had suffered with the same illness. Tifa closed her hand around Cloud's, praying to anyone and everyone that their young friend wasn't suffering the same way. "You don't think that's what she has…do you?" her burgundy eyes pleaded with Shera, Elena…

"I…I really wouldn't want to jump to conclusions" Shera said weakly, now ignoring her paper, but there was no conviction in her voice. "Perhaps the exposure to the Mako wasn't…wasn't that bad?"

"She fell into a huge Mako pit" Elena said bluntly, her normally dormant acid tongue warming up "How much more exposed can you get?"

"Reno, how did you get her out?" Cloud enquired, the first thing he'd said since joining them.

Reno looked up, his normally handsome face haggard and wearied "I don't know" He said honestly, his eyes falling to the worn wood, scanning the lumps and furrows as if embarrassed. "It chased us, and then…then I can't remember what happened…I blacked out…then Aer…" he stopped suddenly, thinking it unwise to continue along this path "Then we were on the beach" he finished, his eyes flitting back up, a peculiar expression of sorrow on his face. 

"You can't remember anything that happened between the time you blacked out and the time you landed on the beach?" Cloud asked, a hint of scepticism in his calm voice.

Reno thought about this for a moment. Surely it would be better to tell the truth, tell how they had landed in the Lifestream, tell how he had thought, for a split second, that he had heard Yuffie cry out, how he had seen Aeris, how she had told him she loved him…and about Yuffie on the beach, the way he had held her in the night, the way…

"No…" he said finally. "Nothing. All I know is that I must have fallen in with her, because we ended up in the same place"

"But you're not sick. He's not sick, so does that mean Yuffie might be okay?" Elena's voice was so hopeful. She and Yuffie had never been great friends, but right now Elena didn't care. 

"I think" Shera said decisively "That Reno is resistant to the Mako and its effects because he, as a Turk, was infused with it" 

"But Cloud was infused with Mako" Elena pointed out. "He still got sick"

"But remember, Cloud reacted badly to that Mako" Shera reminded "He told us that. Right, Cloud?"

Cloud nodded, not entirely comfortable about the way they were referring to him as if he wasn't there.

Tifa suddenly remembered what Reno had said. _'It chased us…'_

"What chased you Reno?" Tifa asked suddenly, still brushing hair and dirt from her young friend's face.

"Huh?" Reno asked, caught up in his memories. He slowly turned his head to face Tifa.

"You said it chased you. Was it Lameious?" she asked.

Reno's eyes narrowed. "How the hell do you know 'bout that?" he asked angrily. "She was the only one…" he stopped, regretting his words, almost biting his impulsive tongue in half. "I mean, I was the only…"

"She?" Tifa was quick to pick up on his mistake. "Do you mean Yuffie? Did she know about it?"

Reno didn't say anything, feeling red creep up his cheekbones. He ducked his head down.

"Reno" Tifa pressed "Did Yuffie know?"

"No" Reno mumbled under his breath.

"Did she?" Tifa pressured.

"Are you deaf? I said no!" Reno slammed a weak fist on the table "She didn't have a clue!"

"Reno, don't be such an @$$#0/£!" Cloud said angrily. "She's trying to help!"

"She's doing a great job," Reno said mockingly, turning his scowling face back down to the table. 

"And why don't you get off of your self-pitying backside and help!" Cloud contested. He had no time for anyone who was rude to Tifa, especially not someone as abrasive and dickheadish as Reno. "If you hadn't been so damn lazy in the first place, maybe Yuffie wouldn't be in this state! If you thought about someone other than your damn self for a moment…"

"Excuse me?" Reno asked, dangerously quiet, voice full of anger. "You don't know the half of it! You haven't got a clue, Cloudy-boy, so don't you start preachin' to me 'bout what you woulda done. You don't know a thing about what we went through"

"What's there to know, Reno?" Cloud asked heatedly. "All you do is take, take, take and never give! You expect everything to be handed to you on a silver plate! Why didn't you get her here sooner, Reno? Was it because it was just too much effort?"

"Cloud…" Tifa soothed, squeezing his hand. He ignored her, pulling his hand away roughly. 

"You wanna know why?" Reno gingerly shrugged the remnants of his jacket off and there, for all to see, was the huge, blistering burn. Elena winced. Shera looked, transfixed. The returning Elmyra gasped and almost dropped her thermometer. "There you go!" he yelled at the top of his lungs in a wavering voice. "For the past day and a half I've been wandering around trying my hardest to help her, and you act like it's all _my_ fault! Well thanks for your so-called _help_, bud, but I think I'm quite okay without it!" 

The sight of the raw, purple skin shocked everyone into silence. Then, ever so quietly, Elena's voice broke the horrified silence.

"Oh!" Elena gasped. "Oh, Tifa, Shera…look!"

"Have a good look," Reno said bitterly "Take a few photos if you like. You all think I'm some lazy, arrogant, worthless slum-kid with an attitude problem. Well you know what? Maybe I'm sick of it now" He got up shakily, refusing to bow down to the pain, and headed unsteadily for the door.

"Reno, stop it!" Elena caught his arm and he was too weak to fight her grip. He stood, his blue eyes full of cold flames, locked onto those of Cloud's. For a moment, two identical pairs of ethereally beautiful eyes locked together, each fuelling the cold flames of the other. Then Reno looked away, closing his eyes and extinguishing the fire.

"Maybe you'd better think of Yuffie" Reno said coolly, temper quelled for now. He opened his eyes, and they were back to normal, no more flames, just blue ice and obsidian-black pupil. "I've done all I can. Why don't you take her to a hospital? Or…" he mimicked Cloud's ever-so-slightly higher voice "Is that just too much effort?"

"Stop it now, Reno" Tifa warned gently, undeterred by Cloud's earlier roughness. "You're badly hurt, and you need rest. You're just working yourself up needlessly"

"Ohh?" Reno said, grinning widely, finally ripping his arm out of Elena's stern grip. "So you're gonna defend him now, huh Tifa? Do you ever get sick of being a goody-two-shoes?"

"Reno, please…" Tifa said, but her weak objections were overpowered by Reno's strident ones.

"Look at you…You know something?" he studied her with interest, like someone studying a particularly pretty piece of artwork, his voice now becoming slurred like that of a drunk "I think you could do better than that spiky-headed schizo you're so bent on defending"

"Reno, you'd better shut up right now," Cloud advised angrily.

"Why?" Reno was swaying now, unsteady on his feet "What are you gonna do? You're only an ex-Shinra soldier, aren't you? Pretended all this time you were ex-SOLDIER…you're just a fraud!"

"Shut UP!"

"I'll tell you something Cloud. Something true" Reno beamed drunkenly, all his weight resting on the wall, intoxicated by fatigue and infection "Do you remember…Aeris?"

"Reno, that's enough" Cloud said firmly.

"Why?" Reno asked bitterly, mouth twisted into a cruel sneer. "Afraid you'll hear something you don't want to? Or are you afraid that…Tifa will hear something?"

Tifa looked at Cloud, deep burgundy eyes questioning, worried, even.

"The truth is, baby" Reno leered, leaning forward until he almost lost his balance "Aeris and Cloud…He never wanted you. You're…you know, one of them things…" he struggled for the word "A substitute! But Cloud, she didn't want you, either. She never loved you"

"Shut your filthy little mouth right now" Elmyra growled, leaping into action. "If you want to talk badly about that girl, or anyone else under my roof you can just get out!"

"She never loved you…" Reno repeated, and then his blue eyes rolled back, leaving just the whites, and he fell heavily, landing in a heap on the floor.

"Reno!" Elena cried out, bending down. "Oh, someone help him! What's wrong with him?"

"He's just tired" Tifa said emotionlessly. "He's tired and hurt and needs rest"

"What's going to happen?" Elena asked timidly, her voice like that of a scared child's. "Are you going to chuck him out?" her brown eyes travelled to Elmyra's stony face.

Elmyra's face softened a little. "Not in the state he's in" she said generously. "If I did that I'd be as bad as him. No, he's got a place for the night here. But the night only" she stressed this last sentence "As soon as he's well enough to walk, he's gone"

Elena didn't argue.

_See what I mean about endlessly punishing Reno? Well I don't know if Elmyra will chuck him out…that's down to me, I guess, and I'm not sure where this fic is headed yet. But whether Reno's revelation will come out or not is something I've decided, and you'll definitely find out in the next chapter. And, regarding Juvi and Tye (some people have asked this, so I'll answer it now) they will cross paths with Cloud and co at some point._

_Comments, reviews, poetry/art requests to __TioRankP@hotmail.com___

_TIO _^-^

_P.S Thank you to the person who sent me all those piccies of Chester Bennington (you know, that very yummy Linkin Park singer) and Dryden Mitchell (Alien Ant Farm singer) They were very much appreciated (you can never have too many Chester pics!) I lost your e-mail address, so can you please get back in touch? Thanks!  _


	9. Chapter 9-Too Far Gone

Chapter 9-Too far gone

_'If you don't trust me by now, you're never gonna trust me'_

_Tye Reynold_

_'It's too late in the game to just walk away'_

_Yuffie Kisaragi_

_'Too far gone, I'm catatonic_

_Leaving you to criticize_

_Empty shell and running naked_

_All alone…lobotomised_

_Back and forth between my hang-ups _

_It isn't easy to be hated_

_Where do you go? What do you do?_

_Simpleton, impromptu, crazy eight_

_I never cared, not once._

_Gotta get away!'_

_"Me Inside"_

_Slipknot_

"Clothes still wet?"

A few hours had passed since Tye and Juvi's escape through the underwater tunnels to the freezing pools of the thick forests surrounding Bone Village. The two had reluctantly set up a rudimentary camp in the colossal skull of a long-dead creature. Tye had used his (extremely) rough knowledge of outdoor survival to create a fire that was now blazing brightly in the darkness of the alien forest.

"Yeah" Juvi said, tugging at the sodden cotton of her blue shirt uncomfortably as if to prove it. 

"Why don't you take that off then?" Tye suggested amiably, leaning forward and prodding the fire lazily with a crumbling stick.

Juvi turned her head slowly, regarding Tye as if he had just suggested she eat dog crap. Tye smiled back uncomprehendingly.

"…You're asking me to take my shirt off?" she asked finally, slowly, tasting each word carefully as if taking in the full stupidity of what he had just said.

"Well, yeah" Tye shrugged nonchalantly as if it was the most normal request in the world. Then, sensing the reason of her discomfort, he sighed "Oh don't be stupid Juvi, it's only me" he jabbed his chest with two thumbs and grinned endearingly, the firelight carving dark shadows into his angular face and highlighting his eyebrow ring, coldly attractive eyes and straight white teeth. 

"That's what I'm worried about" Juvi grumbled, looking down at the dry, dead grass. She fiddled with her nose ring absently. The firelight was also painting her face, her black hair coloured with bright streaks of red and deep orange, dark shadows highlighting subtle cheekbones and long eyelashes.

"Have it your way" Tye said, a little put out at her mistrust. He leaned back and anchored his hands in the spiky brown grass to support himself, feeling dry arid earth beneath the prickly layer. "If you don't trust me by now, you're never going to trust me"

"It's not a _trust_ thing" Juvi insisted. "It's a _morality_ thing. Forgive me if I'm being picky, but I don't really go round taking my shirt off in front of men I've only just met. It's not…" she searched in the air for a word "…normal" she finished.

"What, and camping out in the woods under the skull of a dead monster is?" Tye challenged, his hand travelling up to his head and trying in vain to re-set the flopping red spines.

Juvi didn't counter.

"Okay" Tye put his hand down and faced Juvi, who looked up. The firelight melded with the surrounding blue-blacks of the night and played wonderful tricks with her face, a thin line of dark red tracing the outline of her pout, slices of shadow beneath her cheekbones, her nose ring painted fluorescent orange. She looked at him with the expression of a sulking child, he, two years her elder yet mentally ten years younger, challenging her? She was used to having her own way, what with being the only child born into a rich family, selling pretty accessories under the guise of a housekeeper who did absolutely no work. She had never seen Tye before the attack, even though Mideel was a small town, and she resented being ordered round by a complete stranger. To make matters worse, he was a _stupid_ stranger with no manners at all.

"Juvi, I want to ask you a deadly serious question," Tye said in a humourless tone, which didn't suit him at all.

Juvi stopped sulking and looked up. A dour Tye was never a good sign.

"Do you trust me?"

Juvi snorted. "What kind of stupid question is that?" she scoffed, looking away in disdain. Her eyes scanned the deep, thick forest behind them and immediately a shiver stomped down her spine as she looked into the black, the light from their fire illuminating formerly hidden skulls of dead animals, some recent kills. '_I wonder what killed them?' _she thought, and suddenly, reluctantly, she realised that she was afraid, and that she needed more than ever to get home.

"Juventa…do you trust me?" This time he said it with a little twinge of insecurity, as if he was afraid that Juvi would get up and leave him alone in the dark. It appeared that Tye was afraid too.

Juvi swung her eyes back to him and discovered that she didn't like having her back to the darkness, not knowing what was behind her. She shifted uncomfortably, dead leaves sticking to her wet trousers.

"You don't" Tye said finally, cold eyes falling to his feet in what might have been disappointment or upset or neither. "Well, that's okay. Nobody trusts a slum kid like me, anyways"

"You're a slum kid? You mean you're not from Mideel?" Juvi asked, glad for the distraction.

"Mm-hm" Tye nodded. "Born and raised in Midgar. Sector 7, to be precise. I lived there until I was nineteen. Whole placed got trashed. Everyone I knew, all my brothers and my family, my girlfriend, my friends, everyone, gone" he smiled sadly at Juvi, the smile of a man who has been knocked down so many times but never stops getting up "There was nothing left in Midgar but bad memories, so I moved away to Corel. I'd heard lots of things about that place, you know, that there was a lot of opportunities, but when I got there I found a complete dump" he sighed at the memory "I managed to make ends meet by getting a job at the Gold Saucer, as a cleaner, it wasn't much but it paid the bills, you know?" he looked at Juvi as if she'd understand what he was talking about.

"Yeah" Juvi lied. She'd never had the problem of being broke. Her life had been so cushy that she'd never known poverty. And cleaning work? At a place where you went to have _fun_? She'd gone to Gold Saucer so many times as a child and hadn't even noticed anyone other than herself. Perhaps she and Tye had crossed paths before?

"Then I moved back to Sector 8 and made a whole bunch of friends. I worked for a while in the Wall Market, y'know, working a little stall selling junk. After two years I had enough money to get away for while. I was actually holidaying in Mideel when it was attacked" he grinned, relishing the quirk of fate "Bad timing, huh?"

"Yeah" Juvi agreed, trying to sound convincing.

Tye pondered for a moment. "But, you know…" he began, then dismissed the thought with a shake of his head "Never mind" he said, grin faded to a small smile. "Anyway, I still have my guys back in Sector 8. Steve, Reggie, Shawn, Vic…and my girl, Joey" he smiled wider

"Your girl?" Juvi asked automatically. 

"Well…not my _girl_ as such" Tye explained "Just someone I've got my eye on"

Juvi thought for a moment. Here was a young man who, when life's cards had been handed out, had received all jokers. His life had been full of losses, yet he could still find it in him to grin and laugh while she sulked because she had been challenged. Here was a man who had shoved aside all worries about himself to ensure that she was okay. He'd proved that back in the altar room, and although things came out wrong-for instance, the business with the shirt-he essentially meant well.

"How are you feeling now, anyway?" Tye interrupted her thoughts, grinning again, his smile lighting up his face more than the fire could ever hope to.

"Okay" Juvi said, reaching up to her bruised face. She lightly felt the affected area with her fingertips. The swelling had gone down and the sharp agony of a while back had been watered down to a minor ache. "Much better now, thanks"

"Are you thirsty?" he insisted "I can go and get some water if you like"

"But it's dark" Juvi protested, although she was parched "What if you get lost? What if you trip over something and hurt yourself?"

"Ah, don't worry 'bout me" Tye dismissed her protest with a wave of his hand. He stood up, shaking wet limbs gently "I'm tougher than you think. I'll go and get some water. I'm kinda thirsty myself anyway, so it's no inconvenience…"

"No!" Juvi said sharply, grabbing his arm and pulling him down to her level so that their cold noses were almost touching. Tye almost pulled away, but stayed out of courtesy. "No, don't go, don't leave me here!" For a split second, her eyes met his, prompting a strange, almost shocked look from Tye. It was almost like her stare had given him an electric shock. He pulled away sharply out of pure surprise. 

"Juvi?" Tye asked, studying her face in surprise.

"I…" Juvi began, looking away from him in embarrassment. She refused to admit to Tye that she was afraid. Not that his opinion mattered…it was just that she hated being viewed as a scaredy-cat wuss. "I'm tired" she justified. "I'm sleepy and if the fire goes mad, I won't be able to put it out in time"

"Oh. Yeah. Forgot about that" Tye reached up and rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully, and Juvi wondered whether she had fooled him that easily or whether he was humouring her. "Hmm…okay. Water in the morning, yeah? I'll keep watch tonight" he stifled a yawn "I'm not tired anyway"

"Okay" Juvi agreed, laying down on a bed of dead leaves and moss, knowing full well that Tye wouldn't be able to stay awake the night. For some strange Juventa Darkhart reason she felt safe anyway, knowing that she wasn't alone in this strange, hostile place. She closed her eyes against the night, and after a few moments of discomfort during which a leaf lodged itself in her ear and refused to move, she fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

Tye's gaze fell from the darkness ahead to the pretty, sleeping girl beside him. For a while he watched her, drifting periodically into thoughts of what lay ahead for the two of them-just how hard would it be to get back to Mideel? And would they be able to keep away from Shinoda forever? Would Juvi eventually get sick of him and leave him on his own? Would he be sentenced to solitude again? Her sleep-slurred mutterings brought him out of his trance.

He looked back at Juvi, who was now sound asleep. Part of him refused to believe that she was younger than him. He watched as she shifted onto her side, wet shirt clinging to her slim figure, adorned with leaves and dirt. She muttered in her sleep again, and he smiled. She seemed so childlike. He almost expected her to start sucking her thumb.

Tye looked down at himself, and wasn't surprised to see that he looked the same as her, black shirt encrusted with wet earth and twigs, trousers soaked and clinging to him uncomfortably. In any other situation he'd probably just take them off, but he seriously didn't think Juvi would appreciate that much. Anyway, he didn't really have the energy to do that. In fact, he didn't have the energy for anything much right now…

_'Got to stay awake' _Tye scolded himself, though his eyes were drooping. The glare from the fire burned into his eyes, drying them up. He shut them against the flames. _'Got to protect yourself and Juvi. Got to…got to…' _he fell asleep, adrift in a web of tangled thoughts, feelings and fears.

Both sleepers were blissfully unaware that, back in the ancient city, Shinoda and his persistent daughter were still on their tail.                                                                       

_Through the darkness, a voice:_

_Dao-Chao, ten years ago._

_You were eight._

**_'…What happened then?'_**

You don't recall?

**_'It's…blurry….I, I don't…remember it all…'_**

Should I remind you?

**_'Wait…I remember…mama…I'_**

Yes. Yes, that's right my dear, thirteen years ago, you…tell me, what happened there?

**_'I…don't…remember…'_**

_You don't want to remember. But you do. Think hard, my child. Think hard._

**_'Who are you?'_**

Tell me what happened

**_'I…I don't want to remember…how do you know…?'_**

_You won't be remembering. How can you remember something you never forgot in the first place?_

**_'Mama…help me'_**

_For the love of Leviathan, answer me this: what happened on Dao-Chao, thirteen years ago, what happened to you?_

**_'We'd had an argument. She…she told me off…I'd lied to her…and I…I ran to the mountain…I ran away'_**

Good. Then what?

**_'She followed…she followed me all the way up to the top…we were standing on the palm of Dao-Chao…and she shouted at me again…slapped my face…and then I…'_**

Then you pushed her

'**_I never did!'_**

_You pushed her to her death! She slapped you and you pushed her back. She lost her balance and fell, all the way. You killed her!_

**_'I didn't push her! She lost her balance! The rock crumbled…'_**

Are you sure that's what happened? Or are you…lying again?

**'Fuck you!'**

You killed her. Tell me, my child…what was her name again?

**'Leave me alone! Go away! I…'**

How can I leave you alone? I am you. Now, tell me. The name. 

**'I never meant it…Daddy…Mama'**

Oh how amusing you are my child! How delightfully naïve you are. You think that you can escape from your own subconscious? 

**_'Reno!'_**

_WAKE UP!_

"Mama…"

"She's waking up!"

Tifa, Cloud, Cid and Elmyra gathered around the bed, all eyes trained on the muttering, stirring bundle of white sheets and black hair.

"Mama…"

"What's she saying?" _Tifa's gentle voice…_

"It sounds like 'Aha'…" _Cloud's voice…_

"'Aha'?" _Cid's gruff tone…_

"That's what it sounds like!" _Familiar voices…_

Yuffie's eyes opened, and the world poured in like an unwelcome intruder, colours mixed, objects mangled, sounds blurred, the childish bickering around her buzzing like faulty radio transmission. 

"Yuffie!" Tifa cried happily, kneeling beside the bed and pulling the tangled sheets away from Yuffie's face so she could breathe clearer. 

Yuffie swallowed a rattling lungful of cold air and regarded the room around her with the wide-eyed expression of a sleepwalker who has just woken in a strange place. Then, without warning, she began to cry. Hot, salty tears spilled from her eyes and poured down her cheeks, and her surprised expression caved in and crumpled up and gave way to torrential weeping.

"Oh, Yuffie, what's wrong?" Tifa's smile crumbled as she reached for her best friend, who collapsed into her, frail little body wracked with huge dry sobs. Tifa felt hot tears seep into the soft cotton of her blue dressing-gown. "Yuffie?" she repeated gently, allowing the younger girl to bury her head in Tifa's soft, silky hair, soaking it with her never-ending river of tears.

"I…didn't mean…it!" she wept, words spat out fitfully between violent sobs. "It…it…was…all…my…f…fault!"

"What was?" Tifa asked softly, running her hand down Yuffie's filthy, saltwater-stiff hair. Her eyes travelled up to the three others, questioning each one. Cid, embarrassed by the display, turned away with a gruff grumble and lit up a cigarette. Elmyra tottered away, saying something about sweet tea. 

"I…I never got a c…c…chance to say s…sorry" Yuffie sobbed wretchedly, small body wracked with shudders and pouring with tears.

Tifa looked at Cloud worriedly, patting Yuffie's back gently like a mother. He crouched beside her and gently placed a hand on Yuffie's shaking arm. She flinched at first, but allowed it to rest there as she sobbed, gradually calming. She sniffed miserably, her other hand reaching up and wiping away a few vagrant tears.

"Yuffie" he said soothingly, leaning so his head was next to Tifa's, his hair melding with hers, chocolate brown and sunshine yellow mixing, melding, becoming one "What's the matter?"

Yuffie sniffed dejectedly, calming down now. She pulled her head away from Tifa, a little ashamed at her outburst. Yuffie didn't like to show emotion. She reached up with one shaky arm and wiped away some of the hot tears that were tickling her face as they raced down to her chin. Then, she moved up to her wet nose and wiped it on her wrist, sniffing all the while.

"Is it Reno?"

Again, a miserable sniffle. She shook her head.  

"He's okay, you know. He's tired, but he's okay"

A small voice cut through the dying sobs; "It was my fault," she repeated, now relatively calm and composed. Then, as if she had never mentioned anything being her fault, she spoke up, pulling the clean white sheets up around her like robes.

"Is Reno here?" she hiccupped, eyes red from crying, cheeks wet and shiny.

Tifa's worried, motherly expression knotted into a school-teachery, stern frown. "No" she lied, a little nervously "He was up causing trouble last night and he's resting in the inn next door"

Yuffie accepted this with a shaky nod, too tired to question. "How long was I asleep?" she asked unsteadily, pulling the clean white sheets up to her chin and using the corner to dab away the hot tears that still coursed lazily down her face. She composed herself, determined not to be such a wuss anymore. She hated crying, and she hated it when her friends thought she was a cry-baby.  

"Not long, not long at all" Tifa re-assured. "How are you feeling now, Yuffie?"

"Okay" Yuffie sniffled, still shaking a little, trying to lose the lingering traces of her horrible nightmare. "Reno said I was ill. He tried to get me here, he really did" she sounded like she was desperately trying to convince them, as if they wouldn't believe her. "But…I don't feel hot anymore"

"That's good" Tifa smiled, relieved. She pulled her hair into a loose bunch and let it fall behind her shoulders in a chocolate-coloured waterfall. "But don't you go running around or anything-you still need to get your energy back"

"Okay" Yuffie agreed. She looked across at the full-length mirror that was nailed clumsily to the wall next to the bed. She frowned, disgusted at what she saw. Her hair was badly matted and full of sand and other stuff she didn't want to even _think_ about the origins of. Her clothes were ripped badly, some of the tears verging on the inappropriate. Her face was streaked with tears and she had great purple sacks under her eyes. She also stank. Tifa watched her, slightly baffled at her lightning-fast change of mood, smiling a little at the way Yuffie's face contorted as she took her full state in.

"Tifa…?" she asked, eyes never leaving the monster in the mirror.

"Mm?" Tifa responded, still smiling.

Yuffie wrinkled her nose "Can I at least have a bath?"

Tifa laughed "Of course you can! I'll run you one now, if you like"

"Yeah" Yuffie nodded "Thanks, Tifa" she lay back and rested her tired head on the pillow. It smelled of saltwater and her own disgustingly greasy hair, but she didn't care.

"But Yuffie" Tifa said, as she got up to leave.

"Yeah?" Yuffie asked, as nonchalantly as she could. She raised her head a little so she was staring directly at Tifa.

"Nothing's your fault" Tifa said gently. "Just you remember that. Try and walk away from your troubles for a while…just while you recover. When you feel up to it, we can talk"

"It's too late in the game to just walk away" Yuffie said cryptically, laying back down on the soft pillow, closing her sore eyes. "This isn't something I can forget"

Tifa exchanged worried glances with Cloud.

"Don't pursue it," he advised quietly, peering at the resting Yuffie. "When she's ready, she'll talk"

"You're right" Tifa agreed, but as she left, she couldn't help but wonder what had happened in the Crater between Yuffie, Reno, and the mysterious creature, what had caused Yuffie to degenerate into helpless sobs. She decided, as Cloud had advised, not to pursue it.

_It was Juvi's turn to dream._

_She had woken up to find that the forest was light now, and exuded a mysterious beauty, small shafts of pink, early-morning sunlight darting between a medley of dark greens and browns, much like her hometown of Mideel. Even the skulls and gigantic bones no longer seemed so scary…in fact they were almost majestic._

_She shook her head vigorously to rid herself of sleep. Then, she sat up, her neck stiff from sleeping in an awkward position. Her clothes were almost dry, decorated with dead leaves and the like, but dry nonetheless._

_She looked beside her. Tye was still asleep, and was stretched out like a cat in the sun. He periodically twitched, as if he was having a dream, his arm finding its way up to his head and brushing away vagrant locks of drying scarlet that rested on the light brown fuzz coating the shaved sides of his head. She smiled a little. 'At least I'm not on my own out here' she thought 'There's something to be grateful for'_

_She felt for the lump on her cheek and felt only a slight bruise. The huge swelling had died down and she could move her jaw pretty well. Pushing herself up so she was standing, she shook her still weak legs free of dirt and dead leaves and reached down to brush the remaining ones away. Peering deep into the greenery, she noticed something red hanging on one of the skeletal branches._

_Overwhelmed by natural curiosity, Juvi ventured over to the tree, each foot crunching down deep into the thick carpet of crispy leaf litter. She padded across, taking care with each footstep, not wanting to wake Tye. She turned round to see if he had woken, and immediately tripped on a small jagged rock poking like a single tooth from the brown floor. She fell to the floor with a heavy thud, cursing under her breath as she momentarily met the carpet of dead leaves. Pushing herself up, she examined her foot to make sure she wasn't cut. There was no blood, not even a scrape. She plodded onwards. _

_Once she had made it across, she reached up and plucked the red scrap of soft material._

_She stroked the soft, fluffy scrap and examined it closely, lifting it up to the light, her cold blue eyes scrutinising the folds and falls, until it was clear to her what she was holding. She had finally realised, and suddenly she wished she hadn't been born so damn curious. She wished that she had never noticed the red thing at all. _

_She was in fact holding Korei Brynne's red beret._

_Immediately, a hundred questions raced through her mind at once. 'Are they here?' 'Why is her beret up on the tree?' 'Are they still nearby?'_

_And then it occurred to her that they had been here while they were asleep. They had watched herself and Tye sleeping, and they had left the beret here as a calling card. _

_She looked across at Tye, still clutching the beret, eyes frantic, willing herself to be wrong, praying that for once in her life her premonition was wrong._

_It wasn't. She waited to see the rhythmic rise and fall of Tye's chest as he slept, to hear his light snoring, but there was neither, and then she saw a thin trickle of dark crimson escaping down his neck and soaking the leaves with its rich colour…then Shinoda, tall and cruel, wielding a thin knife, grinning, those shark teeth bared, eyes glimmering in the blood-red dawn sunlight…_

Juvi woke, sweating.

It was still dark, but the early dawn light was filtering through the trees a little, gently illuminating the dark carpet. The fire had long since burned out, and now only a charred mass of black powder remained. 

Instinctively she looked beside her. Tye lay beside her, closer than she had imagined in her dream, his arm laying loosely across his chest, the other tangled in her stretched-out ponytail. Juvi thought she could hear his gentle breathing, but perhaps it was the wind? She wanted to be sure. After quickly scanning the forest for traces of red, she looked back at Tye.

If he was asleep, then he was deeply asleep. His eyes were shut tightly, an expression of complete nonchalance adorning his youthful face, completely still and unmoving, which was unsettling. Juvi thought she could pick out a couple of lingering teenage spots by his chin, but they were probably little marks where small stones had been pressed into his face during the night. Tentatively, she reached out her hand and placed it adjacent to his arm, on his warm chest, her palm resting lightly on the soft black cotton of his shirt. She breathed a small sigh of relief as she realised that he was alive and well. 

As she lay there, too tired to move her hand, with childlike fascination at the rhythm of his gentle breathing and the even more gently _thump-thump _of his heart, he muttered incomprehensibly and shifted a little so her hand was now resting on his side, sliding across his chest to just above his waist, resting on the loose waistband of his black trousers, fingers bowed across the gentle curve of his slim hip. For a moment, Juvi felt a little uncomfortable and awkward, but then Tye's words came to her _'Oh don't be stupid Juvi, it's only me' _

It probably wouldn't bother him, and he'd probably shift her away during the rest of the night. Anyway, it was comforting to have some sort of physical contact with another person…it would remind her that she wasn't alone, and she needed that. 

As she lay, drifting very slowly back into sleep, head nestled among dead leaves and creepy-crawlies, hand resting gently on Tye's waist, fingers curled around his waistband now, resting against his smooth skin it occurred to her that she had never been in a situation like this before. Unlike other children, she had never relished the idea of camping, and she certainly would never sleep out in the open without a very big overnight bag, filled with what she addressed as the 'Bare necessities'-a huge makeup bag, deodorant, ten thousand or so hair bands and hairbrushes, clothes for the night, morning and clothes to change into…the list of 'Bare necessities' was endless. All she had to rely on were damp, dirty clothes and the rudimentary knowledge of her newly acquired friend.

Her mind travelled from this to an entirely different subject: If people came out here at all, what would they think if they saw Juvi and Tye, stretched out together, less than thirty centimetres apart, her hand tucked in the waistband of his trousers and his resting on her hair? They would probably assume…ew…no! Juvi withdrew her hand hastily from his waist and pulled it back to her chest.

Tye flinched at this sudden movement, eyes flickering, curling up into a protective ball and then back out again, inexplicably long legs stretching out seemingly to infinity. For a moment, Juvi thought that he might wake, and shut her eyes quickly to pretend she was asleep. When she was satisfied that he was still slumbering, she opened her eyes slowly and let them examine Tye's sleeping form.

She had never really noticed how tall he was. It was obvious from the start that he wasn't small, but the only time she had really examined him was back in the glass room, where he had been completely dwarfed by Shinoda. His legs were long, but not thin judging by the way his black trousers rested on them. He was very slim, but not bony, and he had three visible tattoos, one on his arm, one on his neck and one on his left hand, a small black letter from a foreign language, maybe Wutaian or ancient Cosmo. The small star on his neck was uncannily close to the position where the slit had been in her dream. This sent a small shiver down her spine. She also noticed that he had a scar running from his lower lip to his cheek, a thin scar, but it was definite. She reached out gently and traced the outline ever so carefully, feeling the soft skin fold into a thin, hard furrow, bleached white. She traced it back down to his lip, the furrow turning a light pink as it stopped halfway down his lower lip, easily distinguishable from the velvet-soft pink skin around it. She pressed it for no apparent reason, and as she did his lips instinctively puckered and the sleeping Tye appeared to be kissing Juvi's finger. Surprised, she let her finger fall, tracing a line down the rest of his face, feeling a little spiky stubble as it dropped. Her hand rested in the soft leaves, fingertips resting lightly against his throat, feeling the pulse throb softly and rhythmically down to his heart. Her other hand crept up to his neck, to the region just below his jaw, where the pulse was the strongest. He was alive. It had just been a stupid dream. Nevertheless, she was going to leave her hands by his throat in a stupidly superstitious manner, thinking that if his heart was to suddenly stop beating she would realise and wake and she might be able to do something…

Tired, Juvi began to weave in and out of a semi-doze, wondering about the most trivial of matters, most stretching way back from Mideel and regarding how her mother and father were faring alone in their new house in Costa Del Sol-they had moved at a convenient time, she noted, content in the knowledge that they were safe and well. Then Tye's words from much earlier ran through her mind; '_Anyway, I still have my guys back in Sector Eight. Steve, Reggie, Shawn, Vic…and my girl Joey' _and immediately her mind painted a portrait. Tye, standing with his 'Guys', all four of them every bit as tall and lean as he, with the customary roughness of stereotypical Midgar residents, all mohicans and spines. Then Joey, a pretty, delicate little thing with long brown locks, decidedly dainty next to her male teammates. She wondered what kind of team they belonged to…perhaps some kind of freedom fighters, a pseudo-AVALANCHE, if you like-even in Mideel, the exploits of the famous AVALANCHE team had been celebrated. Perhaps Tye and his 'guys' were obliterating every lingering Shinra stain that blotted the wreckage of Midgar; perhaps they were cleaning up the slums.

Perhaps they were post-teenage kids being post-teenage kids.

Juvi felt a wave of sudden sleepiness wash over her and she let her hand droop further like a wilting flower, resting on Tye's slightly damp sleeve. Her clumsy, sleepy hands still monitored Tye's heartbeat, but she was so sleepy she probably wouldn't have registered a change. With the picture of Tye and his 'guys' still imprinted in her mind, she drifted off for the second time that evening.

_A predominantly Tye/Juvi chapter. I'm working on their characters, and what seems to be a blossoming relationship. But will their friendship ever be more than a mere convenience…?_

However, I'm also busy thinking of how I can cross their paths with AVALANCHE. The next chapter will feature more Reno/Yuffie and some more interesting revelations.

_Thanks for taking the time to read! Comments, reviews, poetry/art requests to TioRankP@hotmail.com _

_TIO ^_^_


	10. Chapter 10-Voices Under the water

**_Chapter 10-Voices under the water_**

**__**

_'Must be going nuts'_

_Yuffie Kisaragi_

_'Leaving flowers on your grave,_

_To show that I still care,_

_But black roses and Hail Mary's,_

_Can't bring back, what's taken from me._

_I reach to the sky,_

_And call out your name,_

_And if I could trade,_

_I would,_

_And it feels, _

_Yeah it feels like heaven is so far away…_

_And it stings, yeah it stings now,_

_The world has grown cold,_

_Now that you've gone away'_

_"Gone Away"_

_The Offspring_

In truth, Reno hadn't spent the night in the Inn. In fact, he had shared the sofa with a disgruntled and thoroughly put out Nanaki relegated to the floor. A panicking Elena had smothered his burnt back in litres of cold cream. He was covered in a ratty grey-red blanket that had probably been washed ten thousand times and lost its colour as a result. He'd woken up, wearing just his boxers and feeling like someone had hurled a tonne of bricks at him. _Spiked _bricks. _Everything_ hurt. His arms, legs, eyes, mouth…even his _hair _hurt. He looked down at himself with bleary eyes and saw a monotony of purple…every inch of him, it seemed, was covered in bruises, scrapes or cuts. And his back, though no longer unduly painful, felt as stiff as cardboard.

"Shit" he croaked.

He ran his tongue over his aching teeth carefully, checking for chips or breaks. They felt like they were covered in suede. His hair felt brackish and greasy. His body was sandy and filthy. In short, he felt totally disgusting.

He turned to face the grimy sofa cushions and then, in a fit of sudden frustration, pushed the covers aside onto the sleeping Nanaki, who grunted in surprise, and hurled the dirty blue cushions violently at the wall. There was a satisfying crack as something, probably a picture broke. Then he swung himself somewhat dizzily off the side of the sofa and, ignoring the fact that the early morning air was freezing cold, began to pad angrily across the room in search of something else to break.

As he prepared to march up the dark, narrow stairs to vent his anger at the others, something from behind him caught his attention. As the dusty old cuckoo clock sprung, a little arthritically, into life, he turned his head, still marching blindly up the stairs, and promptly smacked into something hard. His somewhat wobbly legs gave way and he rolled backwards down the stairs with a loud _thud_, landing sprawled, dizzy but unhurt, in an ungainly heap at the bottom, looking surprised.

He shook his head and looked up. Tifa stood on the stairs; hand over her mouth, looking a little shocked. For a moment there was surprised silence. Then, her dark eyes twinkled merrily and she burst out laughing.

"Don't see what's so funny," Reno grumbled, picking himself up and dusting himself off. He folded his arms across his lean chest in an attempt to combat the cold. It failed. He shivered unintentionally.

"Sorry, Reno…it's just I find it hard to keep a straight face when I see a man with sticking-up red hair sprawled at the bottom of the stairs wearing just a pair of boxers" Tifa explained, composed, but still smiling. Still clad in her long blue dressing gown, she looked almost as bad. In fact, it was relieving to see that even Reno looked bad sometimes. She had conned herself into thinking that he was immune to the horror known as 'Bed Head', but judging by the way his hair was sticking out in huge clumps, this wasn't so. She laughed again, covering her mouth with a dainty yet battle-hardened hand. 

"Hmmph" Reno muttered, suddenly remembering, with some embarrassment, his half-naked state. He strolled as casually as possible over to the sofa, attempting to regain maybe a little of his lost composure, and perhaps his lost trousers. He found neither, and just plopped down tiredly on the age-worn sofa, curling up in the satisfying warmth of the manky old blanket, his nose filling with the scent of cheap soap powder. This was strangely comforting, and for a short while Reno sat there with his nose pressed to the blanket. Then a couple of Nanaki's hairs got stuck up his nose, and he embarked on a short sneezing fit.

Searching for his protagonist, her noticed that after the 'breaking of the picture', Nanaki had, without a word, vacated the room in search of somewhere quiet to nap. He settled back down, grumbling under his breath.

Tifa smiled, trying not to laugh. Despite his tough exterior, Reno seemed to be just a big kid. Albeit a kid in search of a little attention. She put her arms to her sides and called over to Reno quietly.

"Maybe you ought to take a shower before I run Yuffie's bath" She suggested amiably, folding her arms across her ample chest, naked forearms resting on the soft cotton of the blue robe. "It might make you feel better. Always helps me"

"What's that?" Reno called from his place on the sofa. He turned his head, the sticking-out tufts showing his position like jagged red arrows "Yuffie? Is she okay? You mean, she's not dead?"

"Yeah. It's not Mako poisoning, thank God" Tifa assured, genuinely relieved "I think she was just exhausted" then, quietly, head down, almost sad; "…she's been through a lot, you know"

Reno nodded solemnly, knowing full well that it was _his_ fault she had ended up sick.

"You sounded so sure that she was a goner" Tifa stated, slightly curious "Why?"

"Everyone I c…" Reno stopped mid sentence. He was going to say '_Everyone I care about…' _but then he realised he might put the wrong message across. He didn't want that. It'd be…well, dangerous. Instead, he said, "Because everyone who I befriend either leaves me or dies. It's like the Reno curse or something" he was vaguely amused by this, but Tifa knew in her heart that he didn't think this was funny. In fact, she could tell that it deep down, hurt him. 

"I put her through a lot" Reno admitted a little shamefully, burying his chin in the warm blanket, inhaling again the scent of soap powder  "…She saved me from being deep-fried. See this?" he gestured to his burnt back with his thumb "It could have been a lot worse if it wasn't for her. So if she had died, it would have been my fault" 

"But she didn't die" Tifa reminded, "So don't fret over it"

Reno sighed. His bright blue eyes caught the dimming streetlamp light from outside and for a moment they shone like blue beacons, so like Cloud's it was spooky. Then he blinked, long and slow, and the light was gone. "She's one hell of a kid, y'know?" he said in a strange voice, almost a sigh. Then he yawned, and it was clear to Tifa that his words had just been mixed up with the yawn. He hadn't sighed. Still… 

"She's braver than we give her credit for," she agreed, surprised at the almost fond way Reno was talking about the little ninja. A thought entered her head…but then she dismissed it. It was too crazy to be real. Instead, she smiled and said "Reno, this is the first agreeable conversation we've ever had"

Reno snorted in a rather rude manner, burrowing further into his blanket until only a tuft of red hair poked out like a squirrel's tail. Then he pulled his head out "It's a one-off, babe" he said sullenly, hair a little more tame now. "Besides, I'm not in the right frame of mind for a slanging match"

"Well I'm certainly not complaining" Tifa shrugged again. "Now, do you want that shower or not? If you do, I'll bring you some fresh towels"

"Hmmph" Reno muttered again, and swathed in the ratty red blanket, he rolled off the sofa and, finding his somewhat unstable legs, waddled his way to the bathroom.

"It's okay Reno" Tifa commented with a gentle smile "I've already seen you in your underwear. You've got nothing to hide…and I mean _nothing_" she grinned widely.

"Ha bloody ha" Reno said dryly "Now run along" holding up the blanket with one arm and gesturing for her to run along with the other, a sour look adorned his face.

"Okay, okay" Tifa said by means of apology "I'm sorry, Reno. That wasn't nice on my part. Now go and shower, and we'll talk afterwards. There's a lot I want to ask you"

"What…" Reno began, but he was interrupted 

"I want to know why you are as you are" she explained "I want to know why you have such a problem with us all…why you keep yourself so distant…and why you mentioned Aeris last night" 

Reno suddenly remembered. Aeris. He mentally slapped himself for ever mentioning her name, for ever even thinking it, and then realised there was no backing out of this one. He'd have to tell her…no way! He'd have to think of some lie, then.

Tifa smiled amicably, unaware of Reno's mental argument, and, without a further word, made her way back up the stairs, presumably to talk to Cloud about what a problem Reno was.

As he stood, wrapped in a red blanket outside the bathroom, alone in the dark with just his own twisted mind for company, Reno wished he could turn back time. Then he realised that if he could, he would turn time back right to his very conception and make sure it never happened. For Reno, life was a chore. Each day was hard work. But each time he felt like finishing it, something came along that made him feel alive…and each one had gone. His mother, his mentor Tseng, Aeris, before Aeris his girl Josephyne…each one left him, died, went away, left Reno alone. Reno's biggest fear was being alone. Being the only survivor in a desolated world…he shook his head.

_'Best not to think of that shit, Lozano' _he told himself roughly.

Right now, only the devotion of his friends Rude and Elena kept him sane, kept him from tipping over, and slowly but surely he was coming to realise that something else was keeping him alive. Something he had very nearly lost. Something he knew that he would lose, like everything else in this crummy world. Something_…_

It was just a matter of working out what it was.

After his shower, after cleansing all the dirt and fear from his burnt, bruised and battered body, Reno did indeed feel a lot better. No wiser, no less depressed, but not as sore, and a hell of a lot cleaner. 

His thin ponytail of hair was stuck in a shiny wet red tendril to his throat, slithering down to his collarbone like a long, thin trickle of blood. He emerged from the hot bathroom, swaddled in a huge, fluffy white towel that came down to his scarred knees.

"Tifa!" he hollered at the top of his lungs, not caring that he might wake up everyone in the house. Right now, they were the last things on his mind. As always, he was looking after number one. The law of the slums. It hadn't died yet. 

Someone set foot on the stair, a bare foot, slender and feminine, if a little shaky.

"Tifa" he said again, quieter, addressing the owner of the foot. "I need somewhere to get changed"

"Do I look like Tifa to you?" came the voice, rough with sleep and tears, and then he realise it wasn't Tifa, but…

"Yuffie!" he exclaimed, genuinely pleased. 

The young, frail ninja tottered down the stairs on stiff, achy legs and flashed him a half-smile "How's your back?" she asked, voice raspy and riddled with sleep. 

"Never mind my back" Reno dismissed "What about _you?_"

Yuffie shrugged nonchalantly, offering him a blank expression. She was clearly in one of her 'moods'. "What _about_ me?" she asked, rubbing her eye.

Reno sighed. He wasn't in the mood for Yuffie's games "You were ill…remember?"

Yuffie thought for a moment. Then-"…no" she finally answered 

"You don't remember a thing? Not a single detail about the last day-and-a-half?"

"Nope" Yuffie shrugged "Should I remember anything?"

Reno was about to get angry, but then he realised something. Yuffie _hadn't _forgotten-otherwise, how would she have remembered his back? She was lying, and he wanted to know why.

"No, no…" Reno shook his head, sprinkling lukewarm water over Yuffie's bare legs. "But Yuffie…how did you remember about my back?"

Yuffie's expression suddenly changed from one of nonchalance to one of a rabbit trapped in headlights. She knew she was caught. "I'm…I…my bath's gonna get cold" she blurted, eyes wide in the lingering gloom, looking around her frantically. She began to make her way down the stairs.

"No way" Reno purposefully stood on the stairs to block her path. Yuffie threw her hands up in exasperation.

"Reno!" she exclaimed huskily "Let me past!" 

"Why are you lying? Why are you pretending that the last two or so days didn't happen?" then, half-jokily, he asked, "Was I really that bad company?"

"What do you think?" Yuffie exclaimed croakily "I'm sick to death of being questioned! Do you think that our little 'trip' was some kind of holiday? Something I want to remember?"

**_'I'm kinda glad it happened, actually…'_**

 "No, but…"

**_'I'm glad I was with you_…_'_**

"How about you?" Yuffie pointed accusingly; noticeably wobbly on her dirty, battered legs "I bet you wish you could forget the past two days! I bet you wish it never happened!"

**'I hope he doesn't…"**

"That's not true…" Reno began honestly, but his feeble protests were cut off by Yuffie's increasing agitation. 

**'How can you remember something you never forgot in the first place…?'**

"I'm…" Suddenly Yuffie broke into tears and, without another word or any sort of explanation, barged past Reno and dragged herself as fast as possible into the bathroom, where Tifa had left her fresh towels and a steaming hot bath.

Reno let her run, confused. What wasn't her fault? Perhaps she blamed herself for everything…

He could hear Yuffie's loud sobs as she slammed the door almost angrily, and took it upon himself to do the done thing and make sure she was okay.

"Yuffie…?" he lightly rapped on the door with his knuckles, knowing what she'd tell him to do.

"Go away" was the hiccupy reply.

_'You named that tune in one' _he congratulated himself '_Perhaps she'll throw in a swear next time'_

"Yuffie" he repeated "Come on, you've got to talk to me. Something's up"

Silence. Then, a couple of dry heaving sobs. Reno was about to walk away in frustration. Then there was a noise, the splash of water. Yuffie was getting in the bath.

"Up yours" came her wavering voice, and then there was silence again.

Reno shook his head and walked away. As he did, he almost bumped into Tifa.

"Jesus, woman" he said sourly "You _trying_ to knock me down?"

"Aha!" Tifa ignored his sarcastic outburst brightly, now fully dressed in tight black jeans and her trademark white top, looking fresh and wide-awake "Just the man I wanted to see!"

"Not now, Tifa…" Reno began tiredly.

"No" Tifa interrupted sternly, all traces of her good mood gone. "No, Reno. As the proverb goes, 'you made your bed, now you lie in it'"

Reno's downcast eyes burned into Tifa's mahogany ones, and he knew she wasn't joking.

"…Okay" he said finally "I'll talk. But only to my guys…and you. Nobody else. Is that clear?"

"Don't dictate to me, Reno" Tifa warned in a tone that made Reno recoil, but then she softened a little. "Only me, Elena and Rude. You're gonna talk, and we're gonna listen"

Reno stared at her for a tense moment. It seemed that he might object. But then, quietly, he submitted to her in a quiet, dejected tone.

"That's fine with me"

                                                            ****************

Yuffie sank into the hot bath.

The warmth spread from her cold skin to her chilled, aching bones, filling them with delicious warmth, saturating her body, her long silky hair…breathing a small sigh, she allowed herself, for the first time in days, to relax.

Blissful silence reigned for a while, the only sounds being Yuffie's gentle breathing and the occasional rhythmic drip of the perpetually leaky cold tap. On any other day, this would have irritated the life out of Yuffie. But today wasn't just an ordinary day. She ignored it.

Closing her eyes against the steam rising from the perfectly still, glasslike surface of the water, she let herself doze very lightly, relaxing in the peace and quiet of her own breathing. The tears from earlier had left her face stiff and sore, and the hot steam eased this somewhat. Even the irregular hitchings of her abdomen had ceased. She was completely relaxed.

You can't escape from yourself 

Yuffie's eyes sprang open. In a sudden fit of paranoia, she peered around the small room. She could have sworn that someone had whispered to her…no way…it must have been the pipes…

"Must be going nuts," Yuffie told herself lightly, sinking back into the water. She submerged her ears, hearing the tinkling sound of the water as she went under, and listening as it settled again, her breath rippling the surface ever so slightly. Again, she was peaceful. But she couldn't shake off the feeling that she was being watched, clichéd as it was. It was like a particularly tenacious dog was snapping at her heels and she couldn't kick it away.

'_The pipes' _she said to herself again, letting the water flow around her, poking her toes out at the far end and letting the cold air dry them. She wriggled them experimentally, and submerged them again as they became numb with cold. 

You can never escape from yourself 

This time Yuffie knew it wasn't the pipes. In a panic, she pulled her head roughly from the water, ignoring the freezing cold air, the complaints of her cold body, the craving for the warmth of the water. That voice had come from under the water. It hadn't been her imagination. Something was in the room with her. In the _bath_ with her. 

You think you can get away from your problems that easily? You think a bath will help? How…human 

"What…?" Yuffie gibbered, leaping out of the bath as if the water had scalded her. She grabbed a towel from the rail, clumsily wrapping it around herself and, with her free arm, she began to unlock the door. 

Yuffie… 

"No!" she yelled stridently, struggling with the lock now. Her hands slipped each time she tried to turn the lock. Her panicked fumblings became increasingly frantic.

Yuffie Pristina Kisaragi… 

"Leave me alone!" she yelped, as she gave up on the lock altogether and began banging on the door, as hard as she could, wishing she had Barret's brute strength.

_Daughter of the late Minh-Nhi Viet Kisaragi… _ 

"GO AWAY!" She hammered at the door frantically, hot tears once again streaming down her face. She had never realised that she had so much saltwater in her. She had never cared.

Murderer… 

"I NEVER DID!" She shrieked at the top of her lungs "TIFAAAAAAAA!" she was sobbing now, scared out of her mind and sick with guilt and grief. It felt like she was going to throw up through sheer terror and abject dismay.

Do you believe in Karma, Yuffie? I do. What goes around inevitably comes around 

"STOP IT!" Yuffie sank to the floor, defeated. Her body slid down the whitewashed walls, too weak to support herself. She huddled up, a cold ball of naked flesh and white towel, sobbing her heart out on the white tiles. "Stop it…"

It'll come for you soon… 

"Stop…it…" Yuffie whispered helplessly, shaking.

It'll… 

Suddenly, the door burst open with a loud thud, and the voice disappeared. Yuffie turned her tear-streaked face up to her rescuers.

Standing with identical looks of stern worry on their faces were Barret, Tifa and Cid.

"It's here again!" she babbled through sobs, pulling the towel round her tighter.

Barret turned around through sheer politeness, something of a rarity for the huge man. He always seemed to get embarrassed when women started crying, and now that a half-naked young woman was sitting on his bathroom floor, crying herself into a state of hysteria, he suddenly found himself coughing with discomfiture.

"Jeez" Cid said gruffly "Kid, you okay?" he sounded genuinely concerned.

"It…it…" Yuffie stammered. She realised that 'it' was no longer talking.

"Yuffie" Tifa said gently. "There's nothing here. Perhaps it was a bad dream?"

"I was awake!" Yuffie insisted, "I mean, I dozed…but no way…" She shook her head vigorously "It wasn't a dream. No way…no way…"

Tifa looked worriedly at Cid, who promptly shrugged and pulled out a cigarette. As he always said, there was no problem on the Planet that a ciggy and a cup of hot tea couldn't solve. Cigarette in hand, he set off in search of the tea.

"No way…" Yuffie repeated like a bizarre mantra, shaking, grey eyes wide, skin pale, hair soaked…

Tifa scowled at him as he departed for his total lack of sensitivity, then knelt down to Yuffie. Leaning forward so her face was level with the frightened young ninja's, she began to speak gently and calmly.  
"Yuffie" she began softly "Who was here?"

Yuffie swallowed hard and shook her head. Perhaps she really was going schizo. She hated to think so.

"What did it say?" Tifa tried again, just as gently.

"It blames me" she sniffled, clutched by a sudden drained feeling  "It says it's gonna get me back. I'm scared, Tifa. Don't let it get me…" her huge grey eyes pleaded with Tifa, and her panic was so absolute, so real, so unbridled…  
Tifa leaned forward and, seized by a sudden maternal instinct, took the snivelling girl in her arms, patting her sleek, wet back gently. "Nothing's gonna get you" she promised. "And nothing's your fault, Yuffie. You haven't done a thing"

"But I have, Tifa" Yuffie wept, breaking into a fit of fresh tears "I have"

Tifa tried in vain to suppress a particularly vicious headache that had suddenly sprung to the bridge of her nose. This was all way too much for her to deal with on her own. Reno's problem (Which she knew would be a particular pig to deal with) Yuffie's problem, her own problems…

"Yuffie" she said softly "Perhaps you ought to get some rest. You're not well"

"Don't leave me," she begged, and suddenly Tifa was reminded of something…

'Just like what I said to my mom before she…before she went away' she reminded herself, and suddenly she knew how Yuffie felt. 

"I won't" she promised "If I can't be with you, then Cloud will. Nothing's going to hurt you, Yuffie, I promise you"

"Nothing…" Yuffie mused over this for a while, and Tifa saw that she seemed to be drifting off to sleep. Before she did, Tifa pulled her to her feet gently, securing the towel with her elbow, guided her up the stairs into her room. 

                                                            ***********

Tifa led Reno, Rude and Elena into the empty kitchen. The room was as silent as death, and indeed, Reno felt like he was being led to execution. If any word of this confession got out to Cloud, then it probably _would_ be his execution.

"Reno" Tifa said sternly "What the hell is going on?"

"…Nothing" Reno said angrily, resentful at being treated like a scolded kid.

"Don't give me that," Tifa said with uncharacteristic roughness. "What do you have to do with Aeris?"

"What the hell does it have to do with you?" Reno scowled, staring at the table, at the interesting patterns that the grain formed. No way was Tifa going to get it out of him like this.

"Everything" was Tifa's simple answer. "She was everything to us. She gave her _life _for us. I am _not _going to let you use her name as some sort of childish weapon"

"I'm not using her as anything" Reno said angrily "I would never do that"

"So I ask again" Tifa leaned forward, and Reno looked up at her through a forest of thick eyelashes, the oceans of his eyes burning bright with what she presumed was anger. "What do you have to do with Aeris? How can you say what you said without feeling any sort of guilt?"

"Because what I said was the truth!" he slammed his hands on the table and locked his burning blue eyes on Tifa's. "She didn't love Cloud. She couldn't have…"

"And why is that such a preposterous idea?" Tifa asked, though in truth it was an idea she wasn't too fond of either. Still, she had learned to accept it. Why couldn't he…? "Reno, why are you such a…a bitter little man?" 

"Tifa…" Elena said nervously, the first word either Turk had dared utter, "Maybe Reno doesn't want to…"

Reno's eyes widened, and for a moment it looked like he might throw an almighty strop and leave in a storm of angry words. But then his eyes returned to normal size, and he became calm.

"…You want to know?" Reno interrupted, sitting back down.

"I want to know" Tifa confirmed, completely ignoring Elena's ineffectual protests.

"Okay" Reno agreed finally. "I'm gonna tell you a sorry little tale now, Tifa. It's called 'Reno's Life', and it's the sorriest piece of shit you're ever likely to hear, but it's _true _shit, so listen"

Tifa nodded. She suddenly felt a stab of pity as Reno's fiery eyes dulled, became liquid once again, and he sunk his head into his hands. Pulling his eyes about for a bit, he then looked up and began.

"I was born Reno Irvin Lozano, in Sector 2 of Midgar" he began, focusing on some point in the distance. His eyes and tone seemed very faraway, as if he'd rather not be telling this tale. "Born to a bastard of a father who spent most of my youth either drunk out of his mind or not there at all. Actually, I preferred him not being there" he grinned, savouring the bitter irony "At least then I knew he wouldn't some into my room and start beating the shit out of me" The way he said this, as if it were something he had accepted as normal…something about it stung Tifa. 

"What about your mother?" she asked, curiosity overwhelming her.

"My mother?" Reno said, surprised "She died. I was five. I didn't understand…I didn't miss her at all. I was totally independent by then. She was just as bad as my dad, anyway…spent most of her waking hours pissed out of her head"

_You didn't miss her?_ Tifa wanted to ask _I…I was devastated when my mom left…_

Reno regarded her curiously. He seemed to understand what she was thinking, and continued his tale accordingly.

"She didn't do a thing for me, so what would I miss her for? Just left me to fend for myself. Did a pretty good job of it too…back in those days, in that part of Midgar, you were damn lucky if you made it to your second birthday. It was a real shit hole, you know, you could catch twenty different diseases just from drinking the fucking tap water"

 "Made it to age five by the skin of my teeth, went to school…well, if you could _call_ it a school…picked up the most basic of educations. Namely, counting to ten, spelling basic words, and beating the living shit out of people before they did the same to you" he smiled bitterly, prompting another pang of sadness in Tifa "That's what I learned, and I grew up with that knowledge. The basic law of the slums"

"It was that shitty education which led me to my first job…mechanic, age thirteen. When I say 'mechanic', I mean a guy who welds different pieces of metal together and hands it to another guy who does the real work. So, fittingly I guess, I was paid peanuts" he stopped, then added as an afterthought "Got laid for the first time by the guy's sis, though, so I guess that was okay" He stopped again, and seemed to be thinking, immersing himself in his fading memory, allowing himself to be sucked back into a past he had always been so desperate to forget.

_Thirteen? _Tifa's mind exclaimed. _Jesus, that's young…_

"Got my first taste of drugs aged thirteen and half. A guy I knew died from that shit, but I just couldn't stop, you know? I guess I was pretty lucky not to go the same way, but I eventually kicked that habit after about…" he clucked his tongue absently "…a month, I think. Suffered pretty bad from withdrawal, but I made it in one piece"

"Then, at fifteen, these happened" he waved his hand across his scarred cheek "Got into a fight with some guy over…oh, I can't remember. When I was growing up, you only had to look at someone wrong and you were dead. They cut me up pretty bad. I only made it 'cause she scared 'em off…" 

"Her name was Josephyne. She and a few of her male friends were taking a walk that way…I still don't know why, but I'm fucking glad she went that way. I think I might have bled to death if they hadn't have taken me to the hospital. Got sewn up by some student doctor all the way from Cosmo Canyon and chucked out the very next day, barely able to walk, so weak that I was still seeing double. And guess who was there to greet me?"

"Josephyne, or Jo as we all called her, was one of the prettiest things I'd ever seen, and believe me, I'd seen an awful lot of women" he looked up at Tifa "Interpret that how you will" he said, almost cheekily, a trace of humour lacing his words, sweet as rum, bitter as a Great Glacier winter. Then his voice lowered again, and he immersed himself back into his tale.

"Long dark hair…the most beautiful blue eyes, slim, small, beauty at its most perfect…She said she'd been worried about me… I had nowhere to go, so after a little bit of chat she arranged for me to stay with a friend of hers. Not the result I was hoping for, but I wasn't complaining. A home was a home, and plus by then I was pretty sick…my cuts had got infected, and there was nothing more they could do. Didn't have the medicine, see. That was when I made my first real friend"

"His name was Eddy Avison, and though we didn't hit it off right away, we eventually became friends. Of course in the slums, our definition of a 'friend' is someone who'll watch your back provided you do the same, and of course Eddy was no different. He was related to Jo in some way…cousin or something, and so she came to visit him a lot. I was like a puppy, following her around _everywhere_, and it seemed to piss her off at first. But she put up with me"

"I think the major turning point was when I chased of a gang of muggers. She was being hassled, and of course I was pretty damn lovesick by then, at sixteen, damn stupid of me, but what can you do?" he shrugged "I chased 'em off…don't know _how_…I was still pretty weak from my illness and I weighed about nine stone soaking wet, but they ran, and she was pretty thankful. She didn't tell me to 'fuck off' when she saw me, and I took her back to Eddy's"

"Well, without going into too much detail, that was when we started seeing each other. I didn't realise at the time but hers was a sisterly kid of love, not the love I'd hoped for. It seemed a little odd to me from the start, I mean, on one had you had me, a skinny little kid with bloody hands and a vile temper…with her, a beautiful little thing, a few years or so older, but not quite as experienced…again, that's open to interpretation…she too had been raised in the slums, but she didn't seem like it. Too innocent, I guess" Reno shook his head "Or so I thought. Eddy moved out a little while after she moved in, and with me on minimum wage and her feigning disability allowance-which, back then, wasn't much at all-we scraped by. A whole year of scraping, and eventually she got sick of me again. So, just like that, she upped and left me. But do you wanna know what really hurt? What cut me to the bone?" his deep azure eyes bored into every one of them and they sat in expectant silence, completely into his story. He continued, his tone the same expressionless, low rumble.

"The day before she told me she was pregnant. Jesus man, she was eighteen years old, doing fuck-all to earn a living, and pregnant. There we were, living in a tiny little studio apartment, living on a collective earning of about fifteen gil a week…I'm not surprised she left. Heard afterwards from some guys she knew that she'd got rid of the kid and moved in with some other guy from her gang. I guess she wanted to be rid of every little trace of me. And I don't blame her a bit. I was a loser. Still am…my baby…it died before it even had a chance to live…"

"Reno…" Tifa began, compelled to say something, but the composed look in Reno's eyes told her he was okay. He continued.

"So anyway, Jo went, and naturally I was completely heartbroken. I thought I was the biggest fucking failure on the Planet, and then I went off the rails. I started to drink" he found himself once again grinning at the irony of it "I'd promised myself that I would _never_ drink, not after my mum and dad. Drugs, sex, theft, murder…anything but drinking. So what did I do? I started drinking. But I was rescued. Rescued by someone we all know very well" he nodded to Rude and Elena "I met Yoshiro Tseng late one night as I was staggering home. He was all the way from Wutai, which was a rarity-the Wutaian war had only recently been won, Shinra's springboard to the top. He was part of something called the Turks, and as he helped me lurch home he told me about it. I was totally drunk, but I can remember everything about that night. Basically, he took me under his wing, said I had potential. After a while, after a little training, I had my very first covert mission. Aged barely eighteen. Patrolling the market, searching for a certain young woman. And it was then that I met _her_" 

Tifa knew automatically whom he was referring to.

"Aeris…?" she hazarded, and her guess was met with a tired, jaded sigh.

"You got it," he agreed, suddenly ageing in the space of a second, the shadow of his former self. "As soon as I saw her I fell straight in it. I should have learned my fucking lesson with Jo. But no…after that mission, after spying on her, I just couldn't get her out of my head. She was everything Jo was, and then some. Even prettier, sweeter, and best of all, she seemed pretty damn pleased to see me. So I began to hang around the market more and more, claiming to be watching her, spying, doing my job. After a month or so of 'doing my job', I finally plucked up the courage to ask her out…which was possibly the biggest mistake I ever made"

"Aeris?" Elena said incredulously, her deep chocolate eyes wide and almost ready to fall out. Never in her wildest dreams had would she have guessed that Reno had been with, of all people, _Aeris_… "You…she…"

"Yeah" Reno sighed "I marched right up and, one thing led to another and I finally got round to asking her out. She accepted, which surprised me more than anything ever had before. And after that…well, despite her problems with Shinra, we began meeting in secret. Like some twisted Romeo and Juliet. We'd meet in some abandoned caravan or some closed shop, and, well…you don't need to know that" he smiled, fond memories flooding back "But I was happier than I'd ever been before. I _wasn't_ a failure. I felt like _somebody"_

"Then I met you guys" he gestured to Elena and Rude "Of course, Elle wasn't a Turk yet, but I still knew her-she was the only female to make SOLDIER that year, which was pretty special. It was about then that things started getting out of hand. As Shinra grew increasingly persistent in their chasing of Aeris, we got closer and closer. To make things that little bit more difficult, I soon learned that Tseng had feelings for her too. So, I learned pretty quickly how to act. How to fake it. One of the only useful things I got from Josephyne..." he drifted for a moment, staring into space, eyes glazed, looking happy, sad, angry, all at the same time. Suddenly, his eyes cleared and he snapped back, as if he had been falling asleep.

"Are you alright, Reno?" Tifa asked, surprised to discover that she felt a stab of sympathy. She'd always thought of herself as an empathetic kind of person, but up until Reno had begun his tale, she had never felt anything but a sort of detached contempt for the obnoxious ex-Turk. Especially when he fell asleep on the floor of her Junon bar and she had to enlist the help of Barret to forcefully remove him-it hadn't endeared her to him one little bit.

Reno didn't seem to notice her, and continued automatically, almost as if what he was saying had been programmed into him "I went, in the space of almost a second, from being Reno Lozano, a frightened, hurt kid with no past and no foreseeable future, to Reno of the Turks, a machine encoded to do as he was told. To kill, maim…I did what I was told. But when I met with Aeris…I became Reno Lozano again, the man I used to be, the man that got pushed around, trodden on, chewed up by Fate and spat out on the floor…"

"It was like that for a long time…an awful long time. Then, one day, I led a Shinra patrol down to the church to check on her…they were under my command, see, so I knew they wouldn't do anything…plus, if _I _was there, I knew she'd be safe. Rather me than a total stranger who might capture her, or even kill her. But then I found her with someone else. A blonde stranger. She was laughing, joking…totally ignored me. Well, I can't blame her for that…she was supposed to act scared of me, to throw them off the scent, you know, and besides, if it seemed like I intimidated her, kept her in line, then I'd be more likely to get assignments involving her"

"You had it all planned, didn't you?" Elena stated, still a little shocked at his revelation.

"Of course. She meant so much to me that nothing was too much; no effort was too big…I didn't want her to fall into Shinra's clutches. Why else do you think I stayed there? Because I believed, in some childish way, that I could make a difference. That somehow I could change the future that seemed to be already written out for her. So, when I saw her with this stranger, I kept cool. If word got out about our relationship, I'd be used to blackmail her or perhaps even vice-versa. But I kept thinking: what was that man doing there? He was a member of SOLDIER, or so I thought, and I was getting pretty paranoid; maybe he was here to take her? Then I snapped: I decided to remove him. Rash, I know, but I was such a fool…"

"The guys got the wrong idea and started shooting _her._ And what could I do? I went along with it, praying with all my heart and soul that she wouldn't get hit. And she didn't. But she escaped with him. So, being the paranoid kinda guy I am, I followed."

"I…I never saw her again…I think I realised on that day, two years ago, that I'd lost her for good. But I didn't want to believe it. I couldn't believe it. She was the only thing keeping me going…"

Reno trailed off, eyes locked onto that invisible point in the distance again. For the umpteenth time, Tifa wanted to say something, to offer him solace, but she didn't. He had to finish his tale. He had to explain a few more things before she was completely satisfied.

"We never knew…" Rude said slowly, as if taking it in. "Tseng never knew either. Nobody but you and her…"

"Tseng knew" Reno corrected. "Before he died…before all of that Temple of the Ancients shit…one night…I was in hospital…Elena had just been drafted in from SOLDIER, and I was still pretty badly hurt from that pillar business…he stayed with me that night, telling me about his life in Wutai. That night I was Reno Lozano again…I told him everything, how it began, how I felt, my worries, my fears…"

"What did he say?" Elena asked quietly, as if upset by Tseng's name, as if it wounded her still.

"He said, in no uncertain terms, that I should forget the whole thing. And I told him that I _couldn't_ forget. That was the wisest thing Tseng ever said, and I told him to shove it right up his philosophical Wutaian backside. I thought that I'd grown up. But I was wrong, wasn't I?"

"So Tseng knew…" Elena chewed this over for a bit, while Rude and Tifa sat in stony silence, letting Reno vent his anger and pain freely. Neither wanted to interrupt. Neither _could_ interrupt.

"I have never loved anyone more than that girl" Reno said, his words painfully honest, each one torn straight from inside "In fact, I think she was the only person I have ever truly loved. Not Joey, not mum…she loved me and I let her go…"

Elena spoke again "Why couldn't you tell us, Reno?"

"I haven't loved since then" Reno admitted "And I don't think I ever will again. Too painful…ever since then it's just been an endless string of meaningless one-night stands"

"Reno" Elena said sharply, brown eyes narrow "Why didn't you _tell_ us?"

"What would I have said?" Reno scorned, a little angrily. He adopted a silly tone and a mocking face "Oh, by the way guys, you know that Ancient girl we're tracking? Well the reason I keep fucking everything up isn't cuz I'm clumsy, it's cuz I'm doing it on purpose because I happen to be knocking her off? Don't be stupid, Elena" he dismissed the indignant blonde with a wave of his bruised arm, pulling away the ratty grey t-shirt that had been sticking to his damp skin throughout the conversation.

"How about afterwards? Why only now, after two years, do you feel that you can trust us enough to tell us? And the only reason you're telling us is because you fucked up last night?" Elena was evidently furious. The petite Turk never swore, not even when she hurt herself. Unlike her cohorts, four-letter words did not feature often in her vocabulary. 

"Don't be pissed…"

"How can I not be pissed?" Elena protested angrily, face turning a peculiar shade of crimson. Her brown eyes were narrowed to tiny dark gashes, and her small yet powerful fists were bunched at her sides in indignation. "This isn't just a matter of trust, Reno. You know there's more to it. Don't _my _feelings come into it?"

Reno cast his mind back. A year ago. A stupid, drunken night in mid-winter. He and Elena, alone, drowning collective sorrows with the contents of his way too extensive drinks cabinet. Drinks, darkness…one thing had led to another, and that night, a night so cold and bitter that they had curled up together on the sofa to share warmth, that night in Reno's shitty little flat in shitty old Midgar, Elena had confessed long-hidden feelings to him as they lay together in the dark, stretched out together on the sofa. That night had been forgotten, pushed to the back of his head like everything else he'd ever regretted, but Reno could remember three words, three cursed, regrettable words that had escaped his mouth that night.

"Reno…" Elena said, quieter now, defeated, not caring who was in the room to hear the long-hidden secret "You told me you loved me…" she looked at the floor, but Tifa could see tears forming in the lucent pools of her eyes, hot tears that threatened to spill over her pretty cheeks. "But I should have known it was a lie…like everything else…"

"Elle…" Reno began. "Elle, I didn't mean…"

"It's done now" Elena looked up, and the tears were rolling down her cheeks "Reno, if you didn't _mean_ what you said that night, then you should never have said it"   

Reno didn't say anything. 

Silently, Elena left the room. Tifa got up to follow, but Rude held her back.

"She needs some time alone" he assured quietly.

Tifa nodded and sat back down. After all, Rude knew his female cohort better than she. Tifa turned her gaze to Reno, who was sat on the chair, bowed over, hands clasped between his knees. Long, rebellious locks of blood-red hair obscured his handsome face from view, and as she watched he brushed them aside, only to have them fall right back again, hiding the sorrowful face of their owner like strange bodyguards, hiding his expressive eyes. 

"Tifa…" he said at last, tone low and quiet, questioning, "This might not be a very easy question for you especially to answer, but please…"

"I'll answer anything" Tifa said honestly '_If I can ease the pain…then I don't mind'_

Reno cleared his throat awkwardly "Did Aeris and Cloud…did they…" yet again, he found that he couldn't spit the words out. They were too acidic, too unfair, too mistrustful…

Tifa knew what he wanted to ask, and though she had never wanted to believe it, she knew the answer.  

"Yes" she said simply. What more was there to say? He was a broken man, and she'd broken him further. She hung her own head in a mixture of shame and self-pity.

Reno's head drooped further, and she knew that what she had said had hit him right where it hurt most.

"I'm so sorry, Reno…" she began, but he looked up, and the look in his eyes, the expression on his face…it was so clear…his azure eyes burned into hers, and she fell silent.

"That's okay," he said, smiling a little, the personification of calm. "Thank you for telling the truth, Tifa" He got up and, with the same slight smile, went to leave.

"Where are you going?" Tifa asked, alarmed.

"To find Elena," Reno answered, "I need to clear something up"

_LOOOOONNNNGGG chapter, dull as dishwater too, I'll be willing to bet. But I hope you enjoyed it-it took forever to write, and I put quite a bit of effort into it, and I'm dog-tired as a result. The lyrics at the beginning of the chapter describe Reno's feelings on Aeris, and I think they do a good job of it (I came across them while sifting through a pile of old albums I had shamefully neglected) I love the Offspring anyway! ^__^_

_Big thanks to Nemo, author of the brilliant 'Legacy of the Past' (What? You haven't read it? Read it now! I highly recommend it!)_

_Comments, poetry/art requests, reviews to TioRankP@hotmail.com_

_(A very tired) TIO ~_~ zzzz…_


	11. Chapter 11-Battling A Guilty Conscience

**Chapter 11-Battling A Guilty Conscience**

****

'You are a product of your own psyche'

Elena Leonhardson

****

"First you let him in your bed

Now he's moved inside your head

And he directs all the dreams that you are dreaming"

****

"Have you seen her lately?"

Pulp

_The silent one sat, watched, tested the air like a predator._

_The small female by his side began to grow impatient._

_"Daddy" she hissed, snakelike "Can't we just grab 'em now?"_

_There was no reply. The silent one watched as the young male woke briefly. It was still dark; night still cloaked the motionless forest like a thick blanket. He would not be awake for long. His superb instinct and primal intuition told him that._

_"Daaad" the female whined quietly "Come on, I'm freezing my arse off!"_

_"Shut up!" the silent one murmured "Can't you see he's waking?"_

The young man reached up with one sluggish arm and flicked a wayward lock of blood-red hair from his gritty, sleepy eyes, yawning quietly**.**

_The silent one and his impetuous daughter watched him intently as he noticed the hand of his female companion, how it was tucked neatly around his neck in a strange embrace, almost as if they had fallen asleep sharing a kiss. The silent man knew this was not so, although it would have been convenient if it had been. It would save so much effort…_

The young man blinked long and slow, studying the still form of his ally with a sort of torpid interest, his sleepy blue eyes travelling the length of her body and back again, resting on her face. _The silent one willed him to sleep again, willed him with all of his might._

The young man appeared to be dropping off again. His eyelids drooped like roller blinds over the pale sapphires of his eyes, and a second, cavernous yawn escaped his sleep-fragile body.

_Sleep…_

The young man looked again at his sleeping female companion, blinking lethargically, and as Shinoda Brynne, the Silent one, the behemoth watched him lose himself in his thoughts, he was blissfully unaware of his presence.

_Like a rabbit to a downwind fox, he was totally ignorant._

Tye Reynold suppressed a strong yearning to reach out and pull Juvi's cold, still damp form to his own and instead lay back down on his makeshift bed of dead leaves, watching her all the while. Ever since they had first met, he had found her…well, to be quite frank, stunningly attractive, if a little temperamental. He had awoke to find her hand resting on his neck, and the contact had revived something deep inside, something lost when he lost contact with Joey. Lovely Joey, with her long shiny black hair and mysterious past. Pretty little Joey, five foot four in boots, voice and vocabulary tainted by her life in the slums, beauty and kindness left untouched. Poor Joey, aged only 24, much older and wiser than he. And then his thoughts again turned to Juvi.

Like Joey, it was unquestionable that he found her attractive. But Juvi had a different effect on him. Joey flirted with anyone and everyone, joked, laughed, a genuinely nice young woman despite a past she often said she'd like to forget. But Juvi…he found it hard to explain, even to himself, although he knew beyond any reasonable doubt that he had feelings for Juvi. Feelings that went beyond pure animal desire, beyond simple lust. Feelings that went beyond a silly childish affection, beyond the mixed-up, post-teenage feelings he had gotten so used to. He felt something for her, though, there was no doubt in his mind, something…unmistakable…indescribable…he lacked words to describe what he felt. Maybe when he was wider awake…

Tye yawned. And slept. And as he slept, the Silent One pocketed the green orb that contained Sleep magic, grinning all the while. 

Elena Leonhardson stared blankly out of the window, letting her distracted chocolate eyes follow the cold raindrops down the windowpane, watched them pool on the peeling white sill, watched them fall to the floor and sink into the churned-up dirt and mud. She watched as the lightning flashed occasionally across the dark sky, splitting the clouds in two, a white slash in the grey clouds that disappeared as soon as she blinked. She listened as the low rumble of thunder rolled into the distance like a steam train, lingering like a phantom, a quiet echo disappearing gradually into the morose black of the horizon.

The bittersweet scent of alcohol mixed with faint aftershave and soap filled her nose, and she knew who was in the room with her.

"Go away" she said automatically, voice void of any emotion. Her eyes again trained themselves on the rolling raindrops and flashes of bright white light that illuminated the dark like faulty lights.

"Don't say that" 

"I just did" she turned round to face him. The man that had just broken her heart, the man that had been everything, made her feel like everything. The man that had reduced her to nothing with a few words.

Reno Lozano brushed away a few strands of hair from her face. She instinctively flinched, unsure of whether she enjoyed the contact. She wished she hadn't. Her sad eyes, almost as dark and wet as the sky itself, moved slowly back to the raindrops. They had nowhere else to go.

"Elle" he perched himself on the chair next to hers, pulled it up closer, just the two of them, watching raindrops, in the dark, trapped in memories.

Her voice broke the oddly comforting silence.

"What do you want?"

Reno thought about this for a moment, or at least appeared to be thinking. Elena couldn't tell. Every time she thought she had him figured out, he'd go and do something that'd mess her up again. 

Finally, with a little deliberation, he answered.

"Nothing" he said quietly, eyes never leaving the crystalline raindrops "Just to sit here with you"

"Don't try and sweet-talk me, Reno" Elena warned. "I'm not falling for the same trick twice"

"Who's sweet-talking? I'm being honest" Reno informed, finally lifting his eyes to hers and letting his azure eyes, those great pools of liquid fire and burnt-out coal, melt into hers. She didn't make any attempt to break the gaze, instead allowing a few raindrops of her own splash down her cheeks, rolling to her chin where they gathered and dropped into her lap.

"You shouldn't mess with people's feelings," she said simply, voice shaky, eyes and cheeks wet with warm, salty tears.

"My own feelings are messed" Reno answered "So I can't help but mess it up for other people…"

Elena accepted this without even a nod. She found herself gazing back at Reno's now cobalt blue eyes, encapsulated in their depths. She found herself marvelling at the way they changed-as she watched, blue turned to green, which gave way to blue again. It was like watching the ocean as the sun crossed it, the depths changing colour as the light penetrated them, giving way to murky darkness again at night.

"You must feel awful," Elena said conversationally. "When she…she…"

"Died" Reno finished bluntly "Yeah. Yeah I did. It was worse than when Jo left me. It was like the whole world had collapsed around me" he laughed at himself bitterly "I bet I sound like a real wuss, right?"

"No, no" Elena assured "I know how you feel…it was like when I was a kid…My sister died, my mum was like 'Oh, your beautiful sister is gone, Dana was so beautiful, wonderful, clever…' It was like…like she'd have preferred it if I'd died instead…it's not the same, I know…but I felt so alone…"

"It's not easy, is it?" Reno confided. "When you lose the one thing you care about most…what made it harder was the fact that she was the only person who really cared about me. And I feel like I led her to it…"

"Don't be stupid!" Elena exclaimed indignantly.

"…Everyone I love ends up in some sort of shit. It's like a curse or something"

 "Only her! She died, but that was inevitable! Someone of her heritage…she ran from the Shinra, but she couldn't hide. And you couldn't have made an ounce of difference. It was destiny"

"Destiny" Reno scorned, his cobalt blues narrowing to tiny liquid slits in the scarred mask he wore "Let me tell you something about destiny, Elle. When I was small, my mother told me that I was gonna be great. I was gonna be everything she had never been…I was gonna make up for everything she ever blew. I was destined to be the best. And what did I do?" He grinned resentfully, an expression he was becoming very accustomed to. "I blew it again. Just a big dumb failure who lost the last thing keeping him sane. That's 'destiny' for you-one big cruel joke"

"Not everyone thinks so badly of you" Elena said softly, placing her hand gently on his shoulder.

"They ought to keep away from me" Reno said morbidly, monotonously, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jacket, feeling naked without his Turks uniform "I'm a walking death sentence"

"Only because you made yourself one" Elena said wisely, squeezing his shoulder. Then, adopting a deeper voice with a slight Wutaian accent "'you are a product of your own psyche'" 

Reno eyed her curiously, eyes flitting between her hand and her face.

"A very special person told me that," she told him almost sadly, the wistful expression on her face and in her eyes so clear and vivid "Someone I loved and lost"

"That's a Tseng-ism, yeah?" he smiled softly, picking her hand from his shoulder and wrapping it in his own. "I forgot…you lost him too"

"It's not the same," Elena repeated, closing her fingers around his thin hand "But I think I know how you feel"

"We have that in common, at least" Reno smiled sadly. "Both sad, lonely, washed-up leftovers"

 "I'm not lonely anymore" Elena said quietly "I'm kinda ashamed to say it, but ever since being here with all these guys, I've felt more wanted and appreciated than I ever have before. They may not always treat me like one of them, but…it's like we're on the same level, you know?"

"I've never been on the 'same level'" Reno scowled, eyes darkening to a gloomy indigo. "I don't expect to fit in. Part of me doesn't even _want _to"

"But you have us. And surely you get along with at least _one_ of those guys?" Elena reasoned

"No. I don't. I'm just an insignificant slum kid with an attitude problem, and to them, that's all I'll ever be" Reno was becoming steadily more and more depressed, and Elena was beginning to get pissed with her comrade's defeatist attitude.

"Reno" Elena said patiently "Perhaps the reason they think that is because half the time you act so damn childish they haven't seen the real you"

"And what is the 'Real Me'?" Reno asked derisively, pulling his hand away from hers and placing it back in his pocket. 

Elena flinched a little, pulling her hand back to her own lap as if stung. "The guy sitting in that room a moment ago, telling us everything, pouring out his heart and soul" she answered frankly. "The guy you like to call 'Reno Lozano', not your so-called 'other self'. You say Reno Lozano died when you became one of us. That's not true. I'm still Elena Leonhardson, and Rude's still Rude Catalo. And we've had an awful lot of shit in our lives too-perhaps not as much as you, but shit all the same. It's called 'Growing up in Midgar City'"

"Reno Lozano is dead" Reno reiterated firmly "And I'm glad. He messed everything up for me"

"No he's not" Elena insisted. "There's only _one_ you. No 'Reno of the Turks' or 'Reno Lozano'. You just made it up to stop yourself feeling so bad-if you blame everything on the part of you that is 'dead', then perhaps it'll make you feel better. Am I right?"

"Damn straight" Reno answered curtly. He turned his face to the streaming window.

"So, if this other part of you is so goddamn _dead…_why does it still hurt?" Elena said softly, without anger or frustration, and Reno knew she had him figured out, had him deciphered. Worse still, he had no answer, no smart-arse comment to fall back on.

"Because…" he began, but sank into despondent silence as he realised he couldn't finish.

"Just like I thought" Elena nodded knowingly, embittered by his change "Reno, I didn't set out to upset you, but if that's the only way to bring you out of this slump then I'm glad I did"

Reno didn't say anything. She was right, of course, but he wasn't about to admit it. No way. Not even to himself.

Elena got up to leave, turning her back on her fellow Turk. Before she walked out the door, she turned, examined his morose expression closely, and spoke.

"When you've stopped acting like a spoiled little kid, maybe you'll wanna talk to Rude" Elena said coldly "I'm sure he'd like a few words too" 

Reno said nothing.

While Elena and Reno were talking, Tifa had taken it upon herself to talk to Yuffie. She could see her friend was going through a pretty bad patch, to put things lightly…voices in her dreams, voices under the water…perhaps she _did_ have some form of Mako poisoning.

As she pushed open the door, she was greeted by Yuffie's expressionless face, surrounded by acres of clean white blanket, phantasmal in her paleness.

"Are you feeling better now?" Tifa asked kindly, wishing she could inject a little colour into Yuffie's pale, Geisha-like face.

Yuffie moved a lock of bedraggled black hair from her pale face soundlessly, her hand passing over her cheek in one fluid motion. Ninja agility, it seemed, was still her trademark. She said nothing, just sitting and offering Tifa a blank expression, as if she couldn't hear her.

"What's the matter, Yuffie?" Tifa asked tiredly, sitting on the bed beside her. Yuffie shifted a little to allow her space, her blank grey eyes staring soullessly at Tifa. There was a long, tense silence, a sort of innocuous stare-out between the two, Tifa's warm, red-wine coloured eyes infusing a little warmth and feeling into the tough grey-lilac orbs of Yuffie. 

"…Nothing" Yuffie finally broke the gaze with a long, purposeful blink, her long dark eyelashes ebony to the pale, olive-tinged ivory of her cold skin.

"Don't give me that" Tifa said benevolently "Yuffie, I know when there's something wrong with you. It's only been since you got back from the Crater with Reno…" suddenly, her all-too-active mind began to gather all the disjointed fragments of the puzzle…Yuffie, insisting 'It was her fault', Reno admitting he'd 'Put Yuffie through a lot'…Yuffie not wanting to be left alone…no way…Reno wouldn't have…not after everything he'd just said…

"Yuffie" Tifa asked numbly, her eyes suddenly just as empty as Yuffie's, hoping to high Heaven that her theory was wrong "Reno didn't…he didn't…rape…you…?"

Yuffie's face contorted, the first expression Tifa had seen her pull, and for a terrible moment she thought Yuffie was going to break down, to start sobbing and tell her that he had…

"Hell no!" Yuffie exclaimed incredulously, pulling her features into a surprised grimace "Tifa! How could you think that?" her eyes were alive with questions, no longer dead discs of cold steel.

"Well if you won't tell me, of course I'm gonna think that!" Tifa said hotly, slightly put out by Yuffie's almost angry reaction "I'm just putting together everything I know!"

"Well don't" Yuffie said coldly, eyes burning into Tifa's with the heat of molten steel and the sharpness of broken glass "You don't _need_ to know about my past…"

"Your past?" Tifa repeated slowly… _'God, not another one' _she thought. Then it clicked. If they had both suddenly become haunted by something from their past…

"Yuffie" Tifa asked again, calmly this time "That wasn't Mako you fell into, was it?"

Yuffie stared at her, expression hard, eyes cold as glaciers.

"That was the Lifestream, wasn't it?" 

Yuffie's expression didn't change.

"It must be…damn painful if you can't even tell me about it" Tifa attempted.

Yuffie looked down, and opened her mouth. "Okay, I'll tell you" she sighed. "But only you. It was…"

Suddenly, a low rumbling yell from downstairs interrupted the young ninja: "TIIIIIIFF-_AA_!"

Tifa sighed in exasperation. "Hang on a sec, Yuffie" she said apologetically, before taking a deep breath and bellowing back "WHAAAAT?"

"SOME LADY'S HERE TA SEE YA!" Barret's gruff voice returned.

"TELL HER I'M BUSY!" Tifa hollered.

There was a pause, Tifa recovered her breath briefly, then turned to Yuffie, gesturing for her to continue.

"I was…" Yuffie began again, but she was cut off by another loud yell. She recoiled as Barret's huge voice filled the house. 

"TIFA!" it echoed "SHE SEZ IT'S REAL IMPORTANT!"

Tifa rolled her eyes impatiently, and leapt off the bed. _'She must be a damn intimidating lady if she has Barret running after her_' she thought, turning to the frail Yuffie swaddled in the white bedclothes like an apparition "Do you want to come downstairs with me?" she asked.

"Yeah" Yuffie said gently, her grey eyes softening a little, the warmth and cheer of her former self returning a little "I'm sick of this room. It's like a damn hospital"

"Okay" Tifa watched her as she stood up slowly, meticulously testing each limb before placing it on the floor. Slightly wobbly, she took a step forward, clad in Tifa's blue bathrobe and a pair of Cloud's huge black socks, which were currently pooled around her ankles like puddles of oil. In irritation, she kicked them off, almost losing her balance.

"Ready?" Tifa asked doubtfully.

"Yep" Yuffie nodded, taking a few more steps forward, working the stiffness out of her legs as she padded slowly to the door.

As they descended the stairs, they saw that everyone was now awake, and, as usual, the large house was a hive of activity. Cid, Cait Sith and Cloud were teaching Vincent how to play poker. The tall man was just grasping the concept of keeping your cards hidden, much to the amusement of his tutors. Shera and Elmyra appeared to be having a talk about Marlene's hair, as Elmyra kept reaching over and tugging at her stepdaughter's smooth brown locks. Red and Rude were resting over by the TV, which was currently showing a dreary black-and-white film that neither were watching.

Barret was stationed over by the door, talking to a small blonde, who looked far from intimidating. She was dressed in a tight, shiny blue tank-top, with the sides intentionally laddered like cheap tights, and trousers that flared subtly at the ankles, safety pins adorning a thigh-length slit up the sides. Her chaotic honey blonde hair was tied back in a sloppy braid, bound with a length of ratty string. She had her black-gloved hands in the pockets of her equally as black trousers, just where her worn, loose leather jacket came to a stop. A black strip of leather was tied around her neck, almost like a choker. 

"You Tifa Lockheart?" the girl enquired, in a throaty voice, hand on hip, eyeing her suspiciously with sparkly eyes the colour of pondweed. Thin blonde eyebrows shadowed her eyes, and it was _now_ that she looked intimidating. Despite her diminutive size, she seemed pretty tough. 

_'Someone's polished her vocal chords with a cheese grater_' Yuffie observed of the small woman, watching as her fairly pretty face hardened, a small, recent scar cutting a furrow through her eyebrow. '_Either that, or she gargles daily with broken glass_'

"Gray" Tifa's eyes narrowed a little as she reminisced. "Loki Gray. You've got some nerve" 

The girl mused over this for a second, before speaking again. 

"I always had nerve," Gray retorted pertly, waving a heavily decorated hand at Tifa, who was standing with her naked fists bunched at her sides. Every finger glistened with silver, and as she waved her arm, the clink of metal bangles echoed through the rapidly quietening house. "That's why I stood out"

"You '_stood out'_ because you were a little whore," Tifa said sourly, folding her arms in disdain.

Gray raised both thin eyebrows and grinned "Always did get straight to the point, didn't you Tifa?" she recollected huskily "You're still bitter because I made it and you didn't"

"Your voice never came back then?" Tifa said acidly, changing the subject "Trying to hide the scar with a choker?"

Gray grinned further. She was enjoying this war of words. "I didn't come here to reminisce, Tifa, much as I'd like to" she reached up to the leather choker with a long, slender finger and pulled the black strip down a little, revealing a thin white scar running the length of her throat.

"It's still there, Tiffie," she grinned "Don't think I've forgotten"

Tifa tossed a lock of thick, dark hair over her shoulder, her scathing glare never leaving the woman in the doorway.

"What's your reason for being here?" she asked distrustfully.

"I need your help" Gray answered simply, her smile dispersing "Unlike you, Tifa, I'm not afraid to admit that I'm only human. I'm not as _egotistical _as you" 

"Me? Egotistical?" Tifa scoffed "Gray, you were the most arrogant bitch I'd ever met!"

"I was a kid" Gray justified "But I've changed. And, judging by the way you _still_ don't trust me, you haven't changed a bit"

Tifa opened her mouth to retort, but was cut off by a shrill, indignant cry from Yuffie.

"Gawd, Tifa!" she exclaimed croakily, almost crossly "Look, I don't know what the problem between you two _is, _but she said so herself, she needs help!"

"The kid's right" Cid agreed, pushing a newly-lit cigarette into his mouth and lighting it "AVALANCHE's fight against Shinra may be over, but that don't mean it's safe out there. Let her tell us her problem"

"Thank you mister" Gray said politely, casting Tifa a spiteful glare before continuing Perhaps you ought to sit down. This may take a while…I'm part of an organisation known as the New Age Assassins-of course, we're not actually assassins, but we have been fighting to free Midgar from the Shinra for about ten years. Now the Shinra are gone, we're basically a dormant organisation. The emphasis on fighting, and training for war, is now gone. The younger recruits don't know how to use a sword or gun, and that's good. Or it _was_…"

"So what's the problem?" Tifa interrupted impatiently "Run out of paying customers? No more phone-boxes to advertise in?"

"We face another threat," Gray rasped, ignoring Tifa's cutting remarks "This might take a little time. I'll explain the N.A.A to you in a little more detail. It'll help, trust me, but it'll take a while"

"Feel free" Tifa said sarcastically "We have all the time in the world"

"Good" Gray deadpanned "'Cause time is something we just don't have"

                                                           *****************

AVALANCHE, Rude and Gray sat around the worn, slightly dusty mahogany table that stood as the wonky, dog-eared centrepiece of Elmyra's darkened living-room. Above the table hung a single, bare light bulb giving off a watery yellow light. It hardly penetrated the thick cloud of smoke coming from the chain-smoking Cid.

Yuffie studied her ragged nails distractedly, before shoving her thumb in her mouth and attacking what was left of her nail savagely, her clashing teeth making an annoying clicking noise that, under most other circumstances, Barret would have complained about. She didn't look at anyone, just down at the nail, all her concentration focused on the activity. Rude one-upped Yuffie and put both thumbs in his mouth, gnawing like an enraged rodent. His bright blue eyes darted around like marbles in a glass bowl, studying the faces of the others.

Cid lit yet another shaky cigarette with his fish-shaped novelty lighter and offered the fast-emptying packet round. Everyone else declined with a wave of their hand or a shake of their head. Nobody talked. Cid shrugged and inhaled deeply.

"One of our best guys was recently kidnapped by a rebel faction…kind of a pseudo-Shinra, if you will" Gray explained, taking a sip from the grotty mug of hot tea Shera had just placed before her. "They're bent on resurrecting the Cetra, despite the Sephiroth incident. The thing is, this guy isn't just an ordinary rebel. Not only is he our best, he already has Ancient blood in him. Not enough to give him powers or anything, but enough to make a difference. He's kind of…a rejected experiment, if you like, one of Shinra's early failures, completely oblivious to his past. They trashed the whole of Mideel to get to him, and they also took a young woman. They're going to perform a Jenova-like experiment on them…they plan to breed them and inject the unborn baby with Ancient cells"

"How do you know all this?" Cloud asked curiously, absently re-arranging his cards on the table. Vincent mirrored him, unsure as to whether this was part of the game or not.

"Espionage" she said simply, offering Cloud a smile "We have one of the best spies in the biz"

"Carry on" Cid pressed gruffly. "This sounds pretty promising"

"Right. Well, basically, we're gonna take him back by force. The problem with that is, like I said, none of our guys are experienced enough…the ones that are tend to be older, and not as agile as we'd like. They haven't tasted battle. So that's where _you_ all come in"

"You want us to fight your battles?" Tifa asked contemptuously, flexing her fingers. She lifted her foot up onto the table, deliberately rocking it so Gray's scalding hot tea splashed onto her hand.

Gray winced, pulling her hand sharply away and examining it, before casting Tifa a scathing glare.

Tifa offered a sweet smile in return.

"Not exactly, though we'd appreciate your assistance" Gray answered in a businesslike tone, ignorant again to Tifa's unkindness "What we'd like is for you to teach our guys all you know on battling, the use of Materia and stuff. Of course, we'd pay you well…we're not short on money"

"Sounds good" Cloud agreed hesitantly, preparing himself for the obligatory Tifa backlash.

Amazingly, there was none. Tifa merely nodded, turning her back on Gray and Cloud.

"So you'll help?" Gray confirmed hopefully.

"No" Tifa muttered under her breath.

"Tifa" Cid warned "Come on"

"Life's too short for rivalries," Yuffie said flippantly, idly flicking her earlobe as she leant back in her chair

"Yeah" Cloud nodded authoritatively, casting a sideways glance to his irate girlfriend "_I'm_ the leader here, and I say we help. Anything to avoid another Sephiroth"

Tifa shot him the Look of Death, but it was like pouring a cup of water into the ocean-it didn't make any difference.

"Looks like you understand" Gray mused. "That's good. We're seriously hurting for help, you know?"

"Oh, we know" Tifa commented, before leaving the room. 

An hour later, after some more explaining and some calming down on Tifa's part, it was decision time for Cloud. 

"You'll be wanting to meet our leader Reggie. Reg'll tell you everything you need to know" Gray offered helpfully. Not that Cloud needed help to make his decision. If there was a way he could avoid another Sephiroth, he was going to do it.

"Where can we find this Reggie?" Cloud asked. His enthusiasm on the matter was almost scary.

"I'll take you to Midgar" Gray offered charitably, smiling, all traces of the hardened bitch that had been there before now gone "I have room in my van for all of you, hopefully"

"That's settled then," Cloud said finally, pulling his cards into a pile and placing them back in their box, motioning for Cait, Vincent and Cid to do the same.

"Cloud, is this not a tad rash?" Nanaki asked wisely from his post over on the sofa. He lifted his furry head, gazing at Cloud shrewdly with his good eye "I appreciate that you wish to avoid another Sephiroth incident, but do you not think it wise to consult everyone before making such a choice?"

"Everyone agrees with me, right?" Cloud asked briskly, somewhat impulsively, glancing quickly around the room.

Everyone murmured and nodded grudgingly, apart from Tifa, who stiffened a little.

Cloud turned to Nanaki "Answer your question, Red?" he asked.

Nanaki muttered something inaudible and began to wash his paw.

"Everyone, get equipped. We're heading for Midgar as soon as we can" Cloud ordered. "Yuffie, do you feel up to it?"

"…Yeah" she lied, gazing into Cloud's bright blue eyes. That giddy feeling was back.

"Right" Cloud clapped his hands. He was now a much more hands-on leader than he had been. Sometimes _too_ hands-on "Elmyra and Shera, hold the fort back here. Cait, go get Reno and Elena. Tell them we have an assignment and to get equipped."

"Wait a second" Rude interjected, turning to face Cloud, a confused look adorning his tanned face. "You want _us_ to go on a mission with _you_?"

"Why not?" Cloud shrugged nonchalantly "We could do with your help"

Rude shook his head "Cloud, it's not as simple as that" he explained, his voice a booming baritone. "Nanaki's right. You're really jumping into this one…"  
"And remember what happened last time you jumped into something" Cid reminded, motioning to Yuffie, who reddened. It was as if she'd let them all down…she examined her thumb as if it were particularly interesting.

"Yeah, but…but this is different!" Cloud persuaded fervently "Would you rather us do something now, or wait for a bit while another Sephiroth is born? Do you wanna go through all that again?"

Unanimous head shaking throughout the room. Nobody wanted another Sephiroth.

"Right" Cloud reiterated, "So go get equipped!"

_Not too pleased with this chapter, but the story wasn't going anywhere so I had to speed things up a little. I'm currently writing with a really sore mouth (I've just had 4 teeth removed by the most violent dentist ever) so that might contribute to its rubbishness. Anyway, the next chapter ought to be good. Here's hoping!_

_Thank you to anyone who's read this so far. I like to know what people think, so email me and let me know!_

_Comments, reviews, poetry/art requests to TioRankP@hotmail.com _

_Thanks again!_

TIO RANK P/DINCHT 


	12. Chapter 12-Just A Child

**_Chapter 12-Just a child_**

**__**

_'Suppose your daughter, has within her the power to someday destroy the very planet like an ant under her foot…through the force of her own will?'_

_Dr Fergal Murdoc_

_'Section off myself_

_Put a wall up-what the hell have I done?_

_Keep the dog at bay_

_Survive by saving me_

_Values and the game_

Not a fuck-up, not a part of your life 

_I am one, I am all, I'm above and beyond!'_

_"Liberate"_

_Slipknot                                         _

"Who let her drive?"

Yuffie dozed very lightly. The back of Gray's huge, battered black van was warm and dark, although Gray wasn't that great a driver. How she got her license was a mystery, but then again, it was a Midgan license, and they gave out licenses as if they were free sweets. With a screech of tyres and a bump, the van came to a sudden halt. Yuffie opened her eyes. "Hmm?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Jeeeeeeeeesus Christ on a fuckin' pony!" Cid exclaimed loudly, bringing Yuffie out of her doze. 

"I can't drive off-road" Gray explained sheepishly, tapping a rhythm on the steering wheel as she turned it. The van veered sharply to the left with an ominous skidding sound and for a moment it seemed like the van was going to tip over. Much to everyone's relief, it righted itself. A unanimous sigh of relief swept the back of the van.

"I noticed" Cid said bleakly, pushing his pilot goggles further up his forehead and leaning back on one of the various boxes dotted around the back.

Elena looked down from her perch on top of one of the larger crates, a worried expression on her face "Please, someone take over before we're all killed!" she begged quietly, wrapping herself in her warm black jacket, a plaintive look of helplessness on her face.

"Who do you suggest?" Cid asked sourly, fumbling in his pocket for a cigarette. Finding none, he sighed in irritation and mumbled some expletive under his breath.

"Well…you can drive, so can Cloud" Elena pointed out. 

Cid took this in with his standard 'So?' shrug.

"I ain't drivin' if I don't get a cig," he said resolutely, tapping his fingers idly on the carpeted floor, trying to ignore his craving for a quick nicotine fix.

"Would you rather be killed?" Elena asked helpfully. The van suddenly tilted almost forty degrees to the left and everyone held their breath, clinging on to the floor and each other for dear life. Instinctively, Yuffie reached for the closest thing to her, someone's arm, pulling it to her and squeezing her eyes shut. If she was going down, someone else was going with her.

"Calm down" the owner of the arm said dryly "We're not dead just yet"

The van righted itself again and Yuffie opened her eyes just a little.

Reno stared back at her, two blue eyes shining out of the gloom.

Yuffie drew back suddenly, her own eyes widening to dinner-plate proportions before uttering some half-witted excuse under her breath and looking away in all-too-obvious embarrassment as the van hit a bump and leapt into the air like a rally-car, landing heavily on the rocky, churned-up dirt road with a loud, disconcerting thud. 

From the very back of the van, nearest the door, came a deep rumble of speech:

"Does anybody object to me bailing out? I kind of need my body intact right now" deadpanned Vincent, the thin, dextrous digits of his human hand dangerously close to the lock. For a moment it seemed that he was serious. Then, turning the left corner of his mouth up in a standard Vincent grin, he removed his hand and placed it back on the floor, anchoring himself upright. 

"Oh my god!" Yuffie cried in mock surprise, pretending to recoil in shock "Vincent told a _joke!_"

"Bloody hell!" Cid joined in gruffly, genuinely surprised "Must be the near-death experience, huh Vince?"

"Give me some credit" Vincent grinned under his flicked-up collar. Both corners of his mouth turned up a tiny bit, garnet eyes twinkling merrily "I'm not quite as solemn as you think, old man"

"Least you got _some_ personality" Cid remarked, flipping his goggles further up his head "I always though you had that amputated at birth or something"  
"Likewise" Vincent retorted. From anyone else, this would have sounded sour, but it was a standard Vincent one-word-answer and the others were content with it. They had to be.

"We're near Midgar, right?" Elena pleaded, terror animating her huge dark eyes "Tell me we're near Midgar. Please. I don't know if I can take any more of this"

"We're near Midgar" Rude confirmed monotonously, the battered carcass of Midgar City a squalid grey shadow on the horizon. "At our current speed, we should get there in about five minutes. That is, provided we don't all die before then"

"Oh, don't be so melodramatic!" called Gray from the front seat, pressing her foot harder on the accelerator. The van lurched forward and began speeding down the sodden, slippery dirt road.

"Slow down!" Elena pleaded again, watching as a clod of earth hit the windscreen with some force. The windscreen wiper scraped it away, leaving a dirty brown smear arching like a filthy rainbow across the glass.

"Loki Gray is nothing but trouble" Tifa commented darkly, huddled in a black overcoat at the back of the spacious van, blending in with the shadows, shining ruby eyes the only giveaway to her position. "I don't know why you bothered helping her. She's a whore, pure and simple"

"Talkin' about me, honey?" Gray called sweetly from the front, the wipers scraping the remains of the brown mush from the glass with an excruciating squeal "Talk away. You've got a mouthful of poison there, my dear. You obliterate everything you kiss"

"You're used to having mouthfuls, aren't you Gray?" Tifa retaliated, voice dripping with honey and sugar. Then her face twisted into a fierce sneer "Mouthfuls of fucking _dic_…"

"Tifa!" Yuffie said sharply, a warning look on her face.

Tifa stopped, out of sheer good grace for her friend.

"You can't keep arguing!" she insisted "Please! Just…hold your tongues!"

"Okay, little lady" Gray said, amused. "I'll hold my tongue. But Tifa…watch out for that sharp tongue of yours. You might just cut yourself on it"

Tifa was not amused.

Shinoda sat at the desk.

The man facing him, shuffling through a pile of papers, was fat and balding and possessed a bizarre habit of chewing on the shells of pistachio nuts. Dr Fergal Murdoc had plenty of them scattered over his desk and in a small ashtray-like object on his desk. Perhaps it was one of those flamboyant tics that the professor felt compelled to exhibit, rather than stifle. 

"We're going to give the young lady an injection," he said, picking up a shell and rolling it between his thumb and forefinger. His small, pink fingers plucked at the shell, picking off little shreds of husk. "The injection will be part water, part compound. We call the chemical compound 'Number One Hundred'. The exact content of this compound is classified, but it is basically a hypnotic and a mild hallucinogenic. She will be under close observation for the forty-eight hours following the injection. Questions?"

Shinoda had several in his mind…for instance, the exact composition of this 'Number One Hundred', and why he couldn't know. And why the Professor was chewing up pistachio shells. But he asked none.

_~A piece of rubber flex was looped around the half-unconscious girl's arm. _

_"Make a fist, please" said the man wielding the loop._

_She obliged, a little sluggishly. She was not in the mood to be smacked round the head again. Neither did she wish for another kick in the ribs. Head resting on the wall, eyes half-lidded, she watched as a vein running from her wrist to her elbow popped up as if inflated. She closed her eyes, feeling a little ill. Even if she got a kick in the ribs for it, she did not want to see the IV sent in place. She felt it, though…a dull heat, a prick of pain, spreading up her arm and fading at her shoulder._

The Professor had given her a brief speech, and what he had said, when removed of all the bullshit and fanciness, was 'Do not fear. You are in the hands of Modern Science' She had no great faith in modern science, which had given the world the Atomic Bomb, napalm, Sephiroth, and the constant fear of being attacked by a rabid Nibel Wolf or Kalm Fang.

_"Do you feel any pain?" he asked, feigning genuine concern._

_"Pressure" she mumbled. Her lips felt so cold and heavy "Just some pressure"_

_"It will pass" he assured benevolently._

_"When will I die?" she asked numbly, her eyelids drooping further. Her head was starting to pound rhythmically, like a metronome._

_"Do you feel like you're going to die?" The assistant asked helpfully._

_"Die…" she mumbled, and suddenly her head felt light and airy and she felt like she was getting high…she was floating…_

_"Everything will be fine" the assistant assured._

_"Fine…" she repeated dreamily "Yeah…"~_

Dr Murdoc was a strange-looking man. His right hand was a claw, curled and shrivelled like an owl's talon, the right side of his mouth drifted in a constant hostile sneer. He was an oddity, physically, and, in Shinoda's opinion, mentally as well. It was only following Shinoda's employment that Murdoc had become so obsessive over the Number One Hundred experiment.

"So how does it progress?" Shinoda asked. "How does this drug help?"

"Classified" Murdoc said simply "You know I can't tell you, Brynne"

"Then what more do you want from me?" Shinoda asked "Or my daughter?"

"You know my agenda with Korei" Murdoc stated, "She is dangerous. I want her sanctioned. An extreme sanction, Brynne. Wipe her off the face of the Planet. Erase her"

Shinoda sighed. "You've been through the files again, I see"

"I know them by heart" Murdoc said honestly "I have them imprinted in my mind"

"I have them by heart too" Shinoda answered. Perhaps Murdoc was not the only obsessive here. But Shinoda had to learn them. They were about his own _daughter_.

"But you do not learn" Murdoc explained "Let me once again elucidate my theory"

Thoughts of protest crossed Shinoda's mind. He wiped them away.

"This is not an uneducated guess" Murdoc insisted, "This is a conclusion I have drawn from studying your daughter, and all the files we have on her. This is the result of extensive research"

"Yes, so I have heard many, many times" Shinoda said tiredly

"All I am saying is that my opinion ought to mean more. I am a qualified scientist. I know what I'm talking about" 

_'I sometimes wonder if you do'_ Shinoda thought. But instead, he said, "I'm listening"

"I am worried about the girl," Murdoc told him for the millionth time "A man infused with Jenova…and an Ancient…there was a thousand-to-one chance of marriage. It should have been prevented. But who could have known…"

"You were all for it" Shinoda reminded dryly "I believe you would have given her away if I'd have asked you to"

"But who could have known?" Murdoc re-iterated, deep green eyes the colour of a forest widening, giving him the appearance of a madman. "You see, the Jenova compound you were infused with was mixed with a sample of pituitary gland excretion from the late Sephiroth Hojo. We know…or we think we know, that this substance is responsible for Sephiroth's superhuman strength and magical ability. The pituitary gland, in normal humans, is generally responsible for the maturity of the body, for bringing a child into adulthood. It is also believed that excessive activity of this gland is responsible for the occasional flashes of psychic ability most humans exhibit from time to time. People with damaged pituitaries rarely dream normally…they exhibit a high chance of contracting brain tumours or leukaemia…growth is stunted…"

"What are you getting at?" Shinoda asked tiredly. Murdoc's sermon was already well underway and all Shinoda could really do was listen.

"This is what you fail to grasp" Murdoc explained, "You display what we call 'Low-level telekinetic power', or 'Level 1'. The ability to move an object every so often just by thinking about it. I've seen it happen…you knock over a pencil holder and suddenly, mysteriously, the holder rights itself and all the pens fly back. It's like magic. But I know better. It's Level 1"

"Right" Shinoda nodded.

"Your wife…Ekata…she displayed far more intense powers. Powers typical of the Cetra. The power to heal, casting a healing wind through the power of her mind. The power to paralyse. The power to mentally dominate, make people believe they were stronger. People in this state can unleash a devastating display of such power; we call it a 'Limit Break'. It is induced by the power of an Ancient. Those under its influence, even just the one time, may use these skills for life. This is what we call 'Level 2', the second highest level of psychic phenomena. The child, though…I believe she is 'Level 3'. The highest level. The missing link. But a few things you already know about Korei Brynne…she sees auras, she also harnesses the powers of fire. Not through Materia, but through her _mind_"

"You assume she has inherited the abilities of Ekata and myself…"

"As a small child, I am aware that she could not control these abilities"

"As a small child she could not control her limbs, or her speech" Shinoda pointed out "No small child can. But as the child grows…"

"Yes, yes, I understand the point you are making. But an older child may still lapse. When a child gets tongue-tied…or trips over…these are examples of lapses. I'm sure Korei has displayed these many times"

"You have a sort of point…" Shinoda began, but was cut off by the adamant questioning of the scientist.

"I know how hard it was for you when Korei was an infant. We have the records. A fire extinguisher in every room, a smoke alarm above every door. Korei is, for want of a better description, a walking lighter. I have read the reports. I have read how, each time she became unsettled, objects would spontaneously burst into flame. How, one day, her bottle was late, and the next thing you know, her cot is on fire and she is screaming. So, she was toilet-trained, and she was fire-trained"

"So why do you feel the need to exterminate my daughter?" Shinoda asked bluntly "Why do you feel it necessary to take her life? My baby girl?"

"Because she cannot control her power" Murdoc answered simply.

Shinoda narrowed his eyes "Fergal, she is a _child_"

"Don't let her age fool you into forgetting. She is Level 3. Suppose fires and dreams are only the tip of this iceberg? Korei is twelve. When Sephiroth was twelve, he was perhaps a typical teenager, milling round Midgar, dreaming of becoming a SOLDIER. He grew up to cast Meteor. He grew up to almost cause Armageddon. Suppose, when Korei grows older, reaches adolescence even, that pituitary gland awakens? The gland responsible for the powers of yourself, your wife, Sephiroth…suppose it comes to the point where she can summon Meteor, re-awaken Weapon, simply by willing it?"

"That's insane" Shinoda protested.

"Is it? I'll move from insanity to utter psychosis then. Brynne. Suppose your daughter, has within her the power to someday destroy the very planet like an ant under her foot…through the force of her own _will?"_

There was momentary silence.

Then Shinoda spoke.

"You are not killing my daughter," he said, emphasising each word.

"So it has sunk in then?" Murdoc asked "Good. I want you to consider this, Brynne. Your daughter is dangerous. Put an end to the danger, for the sake of the world"

Shinoda once again fell silent. Meditative. Then he lifted his head, and clearly, two words dropped from his mouth.

"Up Yours"

"Brynne" Murdoc implored "For the sake of our world"

Shinoda pulled himself from the chair.

"Kill her"

He opened the door.

"Kill her…or I will"

The door slammed, and Murdoc was left alone, with his pistachio shells.

_'I'm a cactus' the girl thought hazily, wanting to laugh but not having the energy. It was as if the needle was sapping her of all remaining strength. Even blinking seemed to take an immense effort. 'I'm a cactus. See my beautiful needles'_

_It was clear that the blue liquid in the drip was some sort of hallucinogenic. Grabbing the last drifting fragments of her mind, she tried to remember how she had got here._

_'I was asleep' she remembered dreamily. She was no longer sitting in a sterile white room. The assistant was gone. She was floating through a purple mist. 'How pretty' she thought absently, forgetting that she was supposed to be remembering. 'Look at my purple flowers'_

_A voice cut through the pretty mist, a distant voice, like someone calling from far away…'She's calm now. Relaxed. Her pulse has slowed, her brain waves are almost nonexistent. Pupils dilated'_

_'Good. Hook her up'_

_She had the strange feeling of being pulled backwards, as if she were swimming and someone was pulling her legs. It wasn't an uncomfortable feeling; she was still relaxed and drowsy, just weird._

_'On the count of three…'_

_'One'_

_She let her head loll to the side, enjoying the hypnotic purple swirls._

_'Two'_

_Like an aurora, purple was joined by pink, dancing and writhing like a pit of snakes._

_'Three'_

_And then black. Instantly. And silence._

"Where is she?!?"

The voice echoed down the empty corridor.

There was no reply.

"Where the _fuck_ is she?"

Silence. Then;

"Shut the fuck up, punk"

The young man sat back down on the threadbare prison bed that was the main feature of his little cell and stamped his foot. It wouldn't help, of course, but it felt good. He stamped again, his foot making a satisfying slapping sound on the cold grey stone. Slap, slap, slap…

"You'd better stop doing that, bitch boy, or I'll punch the fuck outta ya"

He grudgingly stopped. Best to keep on the guard's good side. More chance of being fed that way. He'd only been imprisoned for a day, but he already knew the score; do what you were told, and maybe you'd get through the day without a black eye or fat lip. Fine. It suited the young man perfectly.

_"She's going into cardiac arrest!"_

_"Shit…is it a bad reaction?"_

_"I don't know!"_

_"Blood pressure rising"_

_"Her heart's stopped!"_

_"Zap her then! Zap her!"_

_The second assistant grabbed two black cups dangling from a fearsome-looking machine that was making a high-pitched whine_

_"Zap her! Full power!"_

_"How do I turn it up?"_

_"Oh, give it to me, you fuckhead!"_

_A whine. And a loud thunder-crack. And then silence._

_The first assistant turned to the second, a grim look on his face._

_She was clinically dead._

"Hey" The young fugitive called, tone amiable, voice light and friendly "Hey, guard dude, where's the fat guy who was here yesterday?" 

No answer.

He tried again "'Cuz, you know, he was humming along to Neil Sedaka. I'd be worried about that guy, dude, he's not all there"

Silence. Then, a low, rumbling voice replied "Shut up"

"Hmph" The young man sprawled out untidily over his cold, once-white mattress. "Just trying to be nice"

"Well don't be" called the guard.

Silence. Except for the dripping of a faraway pipe, and the occasional sound of the indifferent guard turning the pages of his magazine, the cell block was silent.

Then there was a loud whine.

The guard slammed his magazine down with an exasperated sigh as the whine turned into a lower-pitch moan. Someone was playing a harmonica. And it was annoying.

"Brody!" the guard yelled knowingly "If that's your harmonica I'll stuff it so far up your arse it'll come out of your mouth, am I making myself clear!?!"

The whines stopped abruptly.

"Good girl" muttered the guard, picking up his magazine again. 

_'Hmm' _thought the young man _'Looks like I'm not alone'_

It was a small comfort, but for Tye Reynolds, it would be enough to get him through the day.

_Somewhere not too far away, two assistants in green surgical gowns were hard at work._

_It would take a lot more than comfort for Juventa Darkhart to get through the night._

_More AVALANCHE next chapter, as well as Tye and Juvi's predicament. This was written in between mock GCSE's, and it's the only thing keeping me sane (If you don't count Kate_Sith and all you great people out there reading my fic and sending me feedback!) especially through the frustration of my number-illiteracy! Thanks to everyone who has been following this story, let me know what you think of it!_

_Comments, reviews, poetry/art requests to TioRankP@hotmail.com _

_Thanks a lot,_

_TIO RANK P/DINCHT _**^____^******


	13. Chapter 13-True Colours

Chapter 13-True Colours

****

_'Damnit. I'm sorry, Cid. I should have been more perceptive'_

_Yuffie Kisaragi_

'I want you to see, The life you have disguised 

_The world of things that hurt you _

_Kept all these useless lies_

_I want you to fear the wound up inside_

_Once I took you in, I'll throw you out next time'_

_"Lies"_

_KoRn_

They sat in the dirty, narrow corridor; each perched uncomfortably on the plastic bucket seats lining the dank passageway. The seats themselves were headache-inducing shades of orange and fluorescent yellow, mottled with a variety of dubious stains. Each had at least one sharp-edged crack, and each had its own unique squeal, which sounded whenever someone settled themselves in them. 

"Gawd, what a dump" Yuffie commented in mock cheer as she and Cid traded chairs, each preferring the other's squeak. 

"What else do you expect from Sector 8?" Cloud asked, taking great care not to move. His chair had a particularly annoying squeal.

"What else do you expect from Loki Gray?" Tifa muttered angrily, a deeply moody look on her face. She set about fastening the God's Hand attachment to her thick leather glove, polishing the spiked knuckles with almost angry concentration.

"Oh yeah...what is your problem with that broad?" Yuffie asked curiously, suppressing the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose. She could feel a tension headache lurking behind her eyes.

Tifa was silent. A sulky, childish look printed itself on her face.

"Tifa?" Yuffie tried again, using her endless supply of charm.

"I don't want to talk about it" Tifa said finally, eyes not moving from her shining knuckles "She's trouble. That's all there is to it."

"You know something?" Yuffie said, a little distastefully "Sometimes you can be so damn stubborn. There has to be more to it"

"I don't want to talk about her! Is that okay with everyone?" Tifa snapped, looking up at Yuffie. Her mahogany eyes were shooting daggers "I just don't like her. I've known her for a while, and I didn't like her then. I still don't like her. Okay?!?"

Everyone was silent, shocked by Tifa's outburst.

"That's fine" Elena answered coldly, crossing her legs and examining her nails, fanning her dainty hand out in front of her and studying her short, well-kept nails.

There was a long, tense moment of silence.

This was broken by the cheery whistling of a rather portly cleaner, waddling his way down the corridor, wielding a dilapidated squeegee mop and a leaky bucket of grimy water, which he set down on the floor. Still whistling, he began to push around the soaked mop, spreading filthy, soap-scummy water along the even filthier lino, not stopping to scrub away some of the more stubborn marks.

Yuffie began to accompany his whistling, drumming quietly on the hollow plastic chair with her blunt, square fingernails in an impatient manner. Glancing around sneakily, she saw that the combination of high-pitched whistle and endless clicking was pissing everyone off. Good. She wanted everyone to know how she felt. She was still a little tired, but she wasn't about to admit that. She'd already come across as a weakling. She wasn't about to do it again. She'd only recently shaken off the 'bratty teenage kid' label she'd been bearing like a cross since the day she'd met them, wandering around in the forests of Junon preying on unsuspecting passers-by. _'Only it was you who was unsuspecting. You've lost your independence, Yuffie. A Ninja needs to spend time alone, hone her skills and attacks until they become a mere reflex. And you've lost that. All because you decided to follow them'_

_'Hmph'_ Yuffie told herself, interrupting the malicious words of her subconscious _'Perhaps I could have become a better Ninja. But at least this way I don't have to go back home. Back to that old fart I call a father…'_

"For fuck's sake!" Cid suddenly snapped, moving so violently in his seat that it let out a loud, prolonged squeal "Yuffie, will you quit that?"

"Why? Is it getting on your nerves?" Yuffie retorted sweetly, smiling despite her sarcastically apologetic tone "Damnit. I'm sorry, Cid. I should have been more perceptive"

Cid muttered something under his breath about a 'pretentious, bothersome little brat' and lit up his fifth cigarette.

Yuffie stopped clicking her nails, purely out of courtesy. She instead set about scrutinising the clothes she had borrowed from Elena. Despite the petite blonde's strident protests, Yuffie was now wearing a pair of her tight blue jeans and a white fleecy sweater. She had won on the grounds that Yuffie was too short and not quite chesty enough to wear anything of Tifa's, and was too slim to wear anything of Shera's or Elmyra's. So, much to the ire of Elena, she took the pick of her wardrobe. She was also toying with the idea of dropping something over the sweater, perhaps chocolate, or cherryade, something that would be a complete bastard to get out. With a small smile playing at the corners of her lips, she set about scratching her initials in the plastic chair with the point of her Oritsuru. She was in an extremely destructive mood.

"Where the hell is that woman?" Elena asked, crossing her legs and looking directly at Tifa "She left about half an hour ago and hasn't come back"

Tifa deliberately held back, although Yuffie knew that she wanted to let out a torrent of verbal abuse. 

Elena knew this too. She'd bonded a little more with Tifa in the day or two they'd been united in worry, and knew her well enough to realised that the Tifa she was seeing now was not the one that had been in her company since the disbandment of the Turks and the formation of their strange coalition. Tifa was not a violent or even remotely angry person by nature, and Elena was smart enough to figure that whatever this Loki woman had done, it must have been damn bad for her to react this way.

Tifa's gaze switched from Elena to the withdrawn, morose visage of her redheaded cohort. Ever since his revelation, Reno had been uncharacteristically silent. Thankfully, Cloud and the others hadn't questioned this. Tifa knew that eventually they would. And when that time came, she wanted to be the one to tell Cloud about Reno and Aeris. 

_'If Reno tells him, I know Cloud will blow up and do something he regrets' _Tifa told herself. She knew, although she didn't like to admit, that Cloud had been in love with Aeris. And why not? She had been a stunningly beautiful young lady with an almost faultless personality. Sometimes Tifa couldn't help feeling like a compromise, and often thought that if Aeris had still been alive, Cloud would have chosen her. And she knew that, despite her death, he was still willing to fight for her honour. And by Cloud's personal definition, Reno was not honourable. Cloud would see his relationship with the late Ancient as defilement, as discrediting. He would not even consider the idea that perhaps, once upon a time, Reno had been capable of love.

Reno stopped gazing at the floor and looked up. His tired, unusually soulless blue eyes met Tifa's. She smiled comfortingly. The pained redhead offered her a weak half-smile in return.

"Where the hell is she?" Elena repeated, this time genuinely annoyed. 

As if on cue, Gray appeared, flanked by a tiny woman, elfin and petite, dressed in red from head to toe. Her skin was the colour of sand, and her eyes the colour of pure emerald. Her face was pinched at the chin, all her features spiky, sharp and well defined.

"I'd like to introduce a little friend of mine" Gray smiled, her dirty green eyes sparkling mischievously "She's twelve years old, and all the way from Costa del Sol. Her name's Korei Brynne"

"Enough of that" Cid said snappily, stubbing his cigarette out on the chair. The nauseating smell of singed plastic filled the air "Where ya been all this time? We've been waiting forever"

"Oh, you have?" Gray enquired, a small, wry smile threatening to break out on her face "Well, I'm sorry, I've been arranging accommodation for you all. It took a while. I didn't think we'd have enough space"

"Where's Reggie?" Yuffie asked, pulling the honed blade of the ornamental Oritsuru from the plastic and brushing away small shreds of plastic.

Gray grinned again. "You'll meet Reggie in time, don't worry" she assured "Let me show you to where you'll be staying. Or, rather, let Korei show you"

"What do you mean?" Cloud asked warily. He could sense that something was not right.

Korei grinned, an impishly pretty grin. If Cloud had known Shinoda, he would have recognised that grin as her interpretation of her father's infamous shark grin. And suddenly, she shut her bright green eyes and Cloud felt himself shrivelling. In panic, he looked at his hands, expecting to see his tanned skin shrivelling and shrinking. It wasn't, but he could feel it crawling as if alive with beetles. It was almost as if thousands of small insects had buried themselves under his skin and were crawling their way up to his head, to the space between his skull and neck, where painful pressure was rapidly gathering and escalating into a bubble of pressure, feeling like it might explode at any moment…

"What the hell…?" Cloud uttered, his voice guttural and distorted as if played in slow motion. He chased the imaginary beetles up his arm with his hand, slapping each time he felt them scurry.

"Cloud?" Tifa asked, a little frightened by his sudden fit. She leapt up and part of her wanted to reach out to him. The other half kept her paralysed in a mixture of fear and repulsion.

Cloud looked up at her with almost scared blue eyes, confusion and panic written over every feature. He suddenly felt the pain and pressure burst and dissolve into a dizzying heat, rippling effortlessly through his body like a rampaging fever. His eyes rolled back in his skull, and he saw black and green flashing and melding like a bizarre, creepy kaleidoscope and suddenly, without warning, he was gone.

"Shit!" Barret exclaimed, leaping from his seat and examining the spot where Cloud had previously been sitting with wide, almost fearful eyes "Where'd he go?"

"Where you're going now," Korei answered, voice deceptively innocent and childlike. Her unearthly green eyes remained closed, and they watched in numb shock as she nodded her head very gently and, with a loud yell of "Shit!" Barret too was gone. Far quicker than Cloud had disappeared. No puff of smoke, no lingering shadows or lights. Simply one minute he was there, and the next he was not. Quite literally gone in a flash.

"That's some magic trick" Yuffie commented stupidly, jaw almost hitting the floor. 

"Isn't it just?" Gray marvelled, a huge, smug smile printed right across her face "Tifa, honey, you were right. Once a liar, always a liar. But guess what? I may be a liar, but I have the upper hand"

"You bitch" Tifa growled.

Gray smiled, the smile of a completely self-satisfied woman. "All but Tifa, Korei" she commanded.

Korei complied. She shuddered violently, as if someone had just bumped into her. As Tifa watched, completely in awe, a pale blue aura appeared round her stiff, concentrating form for a split second before she opened her eyes, a few beads of cold perspiration popping up across her forehead. The blue light passed in a lightning bolt from her eerily beautiful green eyes to her victims, cloaking them in its light and soaking into them like water vapour.

Yuffie, Cid, Reno, Elena, Vincent, Rude and Red all disappeared. On the spot. There were no theatrics at this magic show. Just Gray and her smug, self-satisfied smile, and Korei with her creepy, unreal powers. Tifa was both awed and terrified.

"Where have you taken them?" she yelled automatically, her temper getting the better of her nerves. "What the hell have you done?"

"Come with me, Tifa" Gray answered "Come with me and I'll tell you all about it. We have a lot of catching up to do"

"Fuck you" Tifa spat. She knew she was cornered.

"Cram it" Gray responded pleasantly. "I don't think you're in any position to argue with me, sweetheart. I'm at the reins now, so why don't you just back down?"

For once, Tifa felt compelled to argue back. But she didn't. Instead, she bowed her head. She hated submitting to someone as loathsome as Loki Gray, but right now she had no other choice.

Gray smiled. "Good girl. Now, come along. We're going to discuss everything over a nice lunch. You'll enjoy that, won't you?"

"Like a hole in the head" Tifa agreed in mock cheer.

"Where did we go?"

Yuffie and Vincent had ended up in the same room. The most interesting feature of this room was a small, rusting chemical toilet in the corner. The four walls were unbroken grey stone, except for the far wall which was decorated with a metal door painted a peeling blue. The floor was cold, dark stone, and there were two thin beds poking out from the wall, supported by matchstick thin metal rods that were somehow buried in the concrete floor.

"I'm not sure," Vincent answered. Even the mysterious, six-foot semi-human was deeply confused by Korei's apparent telekinetic transportation of them to this…place. He had spent the half-minute they had spent in the cell staring at the walls in complete, unbridled confusion. 

"Was it some sort of cyclic power?" Yuffie asked, pulling her hands in the sleeves of the white sweater and shivering involuntarily.

"I believe the word you are searching for is 'psychic,'" Vincent corrected sullenly "I wish not to assume the origins of such a power: however I doubt it is Materia-related. No Materia can do that…at least, no known Materia. It is plausible that she has discovered a new form of Materia…I personally believe your theory of psychic phenomena is quite adequate"

"Uh-huh" Yuffie nodded. "And that, translated into 'Yuffie-Is-Stupid' language, means 'Probably'?"

Vincent did not answer. His human hand stretched out and touched the cold stone of the wall. It was reassuringly solid. 

Yuffie was slightly offended by his ignorance of her, but instead of bitching, set about scrutinising her new bed. Not even a sheet. How insulting!

"They expect me to sleep here without bitching?" she exclaimed, poking the mattress with one thin finger. It seemed to have all the thickness and comfort of a jam sandwich. Dissatisfied, she turned to her tall, silent companion and, just as she was about to start the biggest commotion, a loud yell sliced through the tense, silent air like a meat cleaver.

"BRODY! BRODY WELLS! HEY! SLUT! ANSWER ME!"

"Looks like we're not alone" Vincent said perceptively, drawing his human hand back to the warmth of his red cloak. "I wonder what kind of detainment centre this is?"

"I dunno" Yuffie shrugged "But wherever we are, we're stuck here. We don't even know why we're here"

As if on cue, there was the loud sound of somebody knocking on the peeling steel door. Knuckles on steel. It caught the attention of both prisoners.

"Yuffie Kisaragi?" the voice came. It was the same voice that had broken the silence earlier on.

"What?" Yuffie called back.

"Step up to the door. I'm fully armed, so if you try any of your little stunts, I'll blow your pretty little head off"

Yuffie stepped. Turning to face Vincent, she gave him a quizzical look.

The tall, dark man merely shrugged and turned back to the wall.

The steel door creaked open behind her and she felt herself being pulled roughly from her cell. She felt a grabby male hand on her shoulder, pulling her about. She knocked it roughly away. "What is your problem?" she yelled as she turned. 

Immediately, the three accompanying soldiers raised their handguns in her direction. The steel door slammed shut behind her and she suddenly felt very small and afraid without Vincent as backup.

"Hey, whoa, look, okay, I'm sorry" Yuffie insisted. She did not really relish the prospect of being pumped full of lead. She made a temporary resolution not to lose her temper when confronted with several angry guys wielding handguns. 

"Good thing too, princess" the lead soldier sneered. He was disgustingly greasy, black hair so oily that you could probably cook chips with it. His eyes were small and beady, like those of a rat. Yuffie immediately re-christened him Rat-Face. "One more PMS-y outburst and I will personally break your arm" 

"I said sorry!" Yuffie said indignantly, brushing the area of her arm where he had grabbed her. She could physically feel her flesh crawling. "Jesus Christ, what more do you people want, a letter of apology?"

"That would be nice, but unfortunately we don't have the time" Rat-Face leered greasily. "Just follow me. We're gonna put you to good use, princess"

Yuffie suddenly felt a wave of apprehension wash over her. What exactly was 'Good Use?' 

She decided that she didn't want to find out.

She looked across to the other small group of soldiers, pocketed up by the door of the dark, dank corridor. They were surrounding another young lady, a tough looking bitch, all black hair and vicious, acidic scowls, dark bags under her eyes and dark bruises tattooing her pale skin. She looked quite sick. 

"That's Brody" Rat-Face informed, as if reading her mind "She's a little firecracker, that one. Thinks she's tough enough to take us all on, but the truth is she can't hack it. See those bruises?"

Yuffie nodded. She could see them. They'd been beating her. She suddenly felt a little sick, partly through disgust, mostly through fear. It seemed that Brody could handle herself and was probably an experienced fist fighter. Yuffie had never fought without her shuriken before, and she had no idea how she'd handle it if, suddenly, the group of soldiers started beating on her…

"Keep your mouth shut and do what we say, and you won't end up like her" Rat-Face leered. "Now, follow us. Quietly."

Obediently, Yuffie followed.

_Thanks a lot to Ying Lu, my friend all the way out in China. Thanks for supporting me! You rule! _*grovels*

_And thanks also to all you wonderful people who've followed Strange Glue this far-that includes you, Asuka! _

_Let me know what you think!!(- TioRankP@hotmail.com -)_

_Next chapter will probably be long. I can see it being long, so I'm sorry in advance!_

TIO RANK P/DINCHT ^_____^


	14. Chapter 14-Spiders On The Ceiling

Chapter 14-Spiders On The Ceiling

_'I shall insert my shoe into your rectum with a wondrous force'_

_Cid Highwind_

_'Pushing little children_

_With their fully automatics_

_They like to push the weak around'_

_"Deer Dance"_

_System Of A Down_

Yuffie and the ashen, ill-looking Brody were taken to a small room. It reeked strongly of urine and vomit and something else, which neither captive could quite place. They were told to sit down and shut up by Rat-Face's equally loathsome, greasy friend. They complied quite obediently, both smart enough to do as their gun-wielding captors bid them.

"This is where the fun begins, ladies" Rat-Face grinned slimily. He took his position at the head of the room, which to Yuffie resembled the smaller dining room of her pagoda back home. Except the dining room back home didn't reek of piss and puke. And the walls weren't a jaundiced cream colour. She offered her fellow captive a grimace. The stone faced Brody merely twitched her eyebrow and turned back to the expectant visage of Rat-Face. 

"Miss Yuffie Kisaragi, you are a member of the former terrorist group AVALANCHE, am I right?" he asked, his voice almost as disgusting and creepy as his face. It dripped with uncensored falseness.

"Nuh" Yuffie spat sarcastically, trying her absolute hardest to remain calm. She did not want to lose her temper, especially not when surrounded by seven or so men with pistols.

Rat-Face chose to ignore this outburst "And Miss Brody Wells" he continued, acting as though the toughened Brody was a stranger rather than a former associate "you are still an associate of Tye Reynold?"

"I always perceived Tye to be an associate of both of ours" Brody countered sourly, her voice very feminine yet strangely intimidating. Perhaps it was her consistently quiet, emotionless tone. "But it seems that my perception was somewhat inaccurate. Damn me for being perceptive"

"He is an old friend of Reggie's" Rat-Face informed matter-of-factly, once again ignorant of Brody's words "Before our organisation teamed up with Murdoc's, Tye was part of our team. However, Tye left us to pursue a couple of years in Mideel. It was during that period of time that our team and Murdoc's became one. I didn't expect you to comprehend. You always were all brawn and no brains. I guess that's why you turned on us"

"Why are you after Tye, then?" Brody asked, choosing to take a leaf out of Rat-Face's book and ignore the derogatory comment. She was not being reprimanded for her thirst for knowledge. Yuffie wasn't sure whether this was standard practise, or whether, at any other time, Brody would receive a beating for her curiosity. She did not want to find out.  

"Because he's special" was Rat-Face's forthright answer "His female companion has endured long-term exposure to the Lifestream and pure Mako with no ill effects, something which we are currently studying. We have reason to believe that he has Ancient blood in him"

"Female companion?" Brody scoffed, leaning back in her seat and spitting across the room. "I guess you took her too so you could have a little _fun_, huh, Shawn? Not getting' enough from me?"

"Hit her" Rat-Face/Shawn commanded coldly. 

One of the soldiers reached out automatically and cuffed her hard round the head. Brody didn't even flinch. It seemed that she was so used to this treatment that it had become second nature to absorb the blows. Shaking her head a little, she straightened back up again.

Brody peered up at her attacker through a mesh of black hair. Her voice was full of acid and vitriol, as she spat "You're fucking idiots, you know that? Retarded puppets, that's all you motherfuckers are"

"Shut her up" Rat-Face/Shawn ordered emotionlessly, clicking his fingers as if he were commanding a dog rather than a small army.

"What's up? Little greasy bitch afraid of the truth?" Brody mocked, spitting once again over the side of the chair "You're not just a raping bastard, you're a whore. You used to be one of us, Shawn-boy. Now you're whoring yourself. You're selling yourself to these corporate dickheads…what for?"

"Shut her up!" Rat-Face/Shawn ordered, this time with more conviction.

"What happened to you?" Brody asked, and this time her voice was no longer bitter and acidic but almost sad "You were Tye's friend. You were _my_ friend. It makes me want to puke when I watch you prostitute yourself like this. Why sell your talents so cheaply when you could have used them to put an end to these naïve Shinra-wannabes?" 

"SHUT HER UP!" Rat-Face/Shawn yelled, flecks of rabid spit escaping his lips, face turning scarlet, eyes bulging like a toad. He was clearly incensed. Yuffie felt herself shrinking back into her chair, further and further until she felt like she might disappear. Once again, she found herself longing for her friends, for Cloud and Tifa and…

_*Reno*_

…all the rest of her AVALANCHE companions. Even Barret would kick their asses if he knew what they were doing to her. 

 A huge, well-built soldier with a laughably vacant expression lifted his heavy handgun and, without a word, rammed the thick, steel butt end hard into the back of Brody's skull with a sickening crack. Her head snapped forward, bouncing off the back of the seat in front, and she fell back into the seat, limp and crumpled. Not a sound escaped her lips.

There was a moment of silence. Brody was unmoving, hanging limply in her seat like a discarded marionette. Her tangled hair hung over her face like a death-black veil. She didn't even seem to be breathing. From the back of her head, down her shoulders, came a thin trickle of dark crimson.

"I think she's out cold," the soldier ventured warily, lowering his gun back into its holster.

"How hard did you hit her?" another asked, examining her still form from across the room. 

"Er…quite hard…"

"You idiot! You've killed her!"

"How do you know?"

"Check her" 

The soldier who had hit her moved warily forward, ignoring Yuffie, who was still sitting quietly in her seat, more than a little concerned about Brody. She decided to stay put rather than risk the same happening to her. He reached out tentatively, his huge, maladroit hand creeping under her neck to feel her pulse.

Quick as a flash, Brody reached out and, with one punch, knocked her behemoth of an attacker flat on the floor. Immediately, the room was filled with frenetic yells of "Grab her!" She leapt nimbly from her seat, landing in an awkward heap. Gathering herself together quickly, she braced herself for the impact of bodies as they surrounded her like a pack of dogs closing in for the kill.

"RUN!" she commanded to the dumbstruck Yuffie. The ninja, still completely astonished, leapt from her seat and, dodging the awkwardly grabbing hands of one soldier, made a sprint for the exit. Her legs pumping, she was suddenly reminded of her panicked escape from Lameious' lair. Except this time, Reno wasn't here to save her. God, how she wished he was! 

From behind her, she heard the sound of fist connecting with skull, and as she neared the door, she could see a reflection in the mesh window of the scene behind her. Brody had punched Rat-Face/Shawn square in the nose and while his far-too-loyal lackeys had broken away to fuss over him, Brody had broken free and was now sprinting for all she was worth to catch up with Yuffie.

"OPEN THE DOOR!" she screamed breathlessly, her face red with exertion and smeared blood, her hair matted against her face. Like a lobotomised idiot, Yuffie took a few seconds out to register everything that had happened since they had entered the room. Then, slowly, she reached out and turned the handle, following Brody as she skidded out of the door and into the dark, concrete maze of twisting corridors. Yuffie slammed the door shut behind her and took off after Brody, managing without much effort to match her speed. Twisting and turning for what seemed like an age, passing length after length of featureless grey corridor, Brody finally seemed to recognise where they were. 

"Follow me" Brody puffed, her bare feet slapping painfully against the cold concrete as she ran. She veered sharply around the corner and into a small storage closet, pulling Yuffie in with her and slamming the door shut. From behind them, they could hear the not-too-distant yells of angry men and the sound of their shoes crashing against the unforgiving floor.

"Get up in the air vents" Brody hissed breathlessly, nudging Yuffie and pointing to the low ceiling.

"What about you?" Yuffie asked stupidly, struggling as the much stronger Brody began pushing her up to the ventilation shaft. 

"I'll survive, honey" Brody said, her unusually light, lilting voice now calm and almost friendly. "Been surviving for about two months. I'd rather see you escape than me. I don't think you could handle what they'd do to you"

Yuffie gulped. Perhaps Brody was right. Her selfish side once again took control, and she clambered up to the vent. Brody looped her hands around Yuffie's foot to boost her up.

Pushing the loose metal grill away, Yuffie pulled her slight frame into the cold steel tunnel, ducking a little so she didn't hit her head.

She watched as Brody replaced the grill.

"Go on" Brody encouraged kindly "Get away. Before they find me"

Yuffie opened her mouth to speak, but the opening of the closet door made her instinctively shrink back into the shadows. Keeping one eye on the scene below, she tensed her muscles, ready to bolt down the darkened tunnels of the ventilation system at any moment. 

Brody gave her a quick conspiratorial wink before the door burst open and she was surrounded immediately by four of the soldiers. At the front of their protective semicircle, grinning like a coked-up Cheshire cat, was Shawn.

"You're crap at hiding" Shawn grinned, his greasy skin illuminated by the weak corridor light. Yuffie could see the highlights from her secret lair in the ventilation shaft.

"Take me away, then" Brody said, her voice a completely submissive sigh. She held out her arms. She sounded and looked like she had completely given in. But Yuffie knew she was playing a game with them. Brody was not one to give in so easily. Unless she was merely ensuring Yuffie's safety…

Yuffie knew this for certain when Brody cast a small grin up at the vent, her black hair partially covering her face. Shawn grabbed both of her wrists, silently ordering one of his lackeys to point the muzzle of their pistol at the side of her head should she try to escape. At the sight of this, Shawn too cast a confused glance up at the vent. Yuffie shrank back further into the claustrophobic confines of the duct, her heart hammering so loud in her chest that she was certain the crowd below could hear it. 

"What's up?" he asked Brody sneeringly "Seeing spiders on the ceiling?"

Brody looked back at Shawn, a hugely disdainful look painted on her face. 

"I just need a break from looking at your face," she said finally, allowing him to pull her roughly into a steady trot. Without another word, he and his entourage escorted her away.

Yuffie waited until the yells of "Hands off, greasy bitch" and "Shut the fuck up" had faded into silence, before placing a tentative palm on the cold steel floor. It made a loud, hollow clanging noise. She automatically withdrew.

"Calm" she told herself quietly. Replacing her hand, and cringing when she heard that same hollow clang, she began her laboriously slow journey along the ventilation systems. She was going back to get Vincent and find everyone else. And then she was going to get Brody.

Meanwhile, Loki Gray and Korei Brynne were sat round a small round table, the white plastic type that people usually have in their gardens. Only this one was placed in the corner of a room filled to the brim with tubes, wires and other mechanical paraphernalia. It was like a large-scale version of Hojo's lab back in the dusty, dank basement of the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim. Huge canisters of a pale blue bubbling liquid, standing like huge sentinels before small, busily beeping computers displaying a series of different green visualisations; a long green line, occasionally dipping or rising like a heart monitor; a series of 1's and 0's travelling in lines across the screen; four or five thick lines writhing and slithering like snakes across the blackness. Long tubes of the same liquid, this time viscous and thick, not so much flowing as oozing through the thin tubes, dripping into other man-sized canisters. Here and there the eye would be distracted by sudden flashes of buttons, red and yellow and blue, flashing alternately like fairy lights. Occasionally, as the flashes occurred, there was a loud beep.

Epileptics beware. Fergal Murdoc's playroom was not a healthy place to hang out.

"Are you okay in there, Tiffie?" Gray asked far-too-sweetly. She appeared to be addressing the canister opposite their table. It was half full of the viscous blue substance, and more was being fed into it via the tubes. Gray watched, absorbed, face contorted in an expression of morbid, debauched pleasure as the substance oozed and writhed its way through the tubes, becoming liquid once again as it hit the bottom with a hollow splash. Inside the canister, knee-deep in the blue liquid and hooked up to machines through tubes and wires was an inert, cadaver-like Tifa Lockheart. Her eyes were glassy and lifeless, like those of a life-sized doll. Her skin was white porcelain, pale and flawless and completely lifeless. Protruding from her mouth was a thick, clear tube, pumping oxygen into her lungs. From her ears, nose and everywhere else came more wires. There were wires stuck to the bare skin of her arms with little white patches, IV needles buried deep in her veins, all attached to bleeping machines taking periodic readings of every bodily function. It was an abhorrent sight, but neither woman seemed to mind.

"What's going to happen now?" Korei asked Gray, sipping nonchalantly on a Coke. 

"We wait" Gray answered simply. Her tone was cold, unfeeling. Callous, even. But to Loki Sarina Gray, callousness was merely a by-product of a strong work ethic She didn't care, and she wasn't going to pretend she did. Pretence had never been something she enjoyed. 

"Why do you hate each other so much?" Korei asked, pushing the ice cubes around in her cup, letting them spin in the black whirlpool. 

"She's jealous of me" Gray answered "I made it to the top and she never did. She wanted to join SOLDIER, and so did I. Only difference is, I made the grade and she never did" 

"So, why did you quit?" Korei asked, genuinely surprised "Isn't it rare for a female to make SOLDIER? And what happened to Tifa after that?"

"I quit because I realised Shinra was a lost cause" Gray said simply "I enjoyed the novelty for a while…the only other females around were the secretaries, a brazen hussy named Christine Scarlet and a useless no-hoper named Elena Leonhardson. When they made it to the top before I did, I knew I had to get out. And, as for Ms Lockheart…I heard she went and joined an anti-Shinra organisation. Sour grapes, hmm, Korei?"

There was a long pause. Gray seemed to lose herself down memory lane for a bit, while Korei sipped daintily at her coke.  

"So…what're you planning to do with her?" Korei tried again, blowing bubbles into her drink like a bored child. "Are you gonna drug her and have her cut up like that other lady?"

"Do you mean Juventa?" Gray asked rhetorically, "No. I have a different agenda for Miss Lockheart. She hurt me" Gray's hand travelled unconsciously to her throat and her long, dextrous fingers felt along the thin white ridge that scarred her. Her tarnished emerald eyes darkened like a forest in the wake of sunset "I plan on doing the same. Vengeance may not always be practical, but it certainly is sweet"

Korei seemed satisfied with this answer, and took another sip from her coke. She wrinkled her nose, turning her tanned face up to her older companion.

"It's gone flat," she announced in disgust.

Gray gave her an almost apologetic smile. "Come on then, my little helper" she grinned cheerily, "I'll get you another one. It doesn't seem like Tiffie is going anywhere fast"

The pair got up and left the room without a second glance, leaving Tifa Lockheart attached to the machines, alone, unwatched. 

"VINNY!"

Vincent Valentine snapped out of his trance for long enough to realise that somebody was pounding furiously on the air ducts overhead. Somebody had yelled his name…no, actually, they had yelled a much detested pet form of his name. But so much the same…he slowly lowered himself onto the floor, allowing his long legs to take all of his weight, and, stretching his arm out to its full length, tapped lightly on the air vent.

"Vinny! Open the vent, you prune!"

Only one person ever dared call him Vinny (and, for that matter, a prune) and he knew, beyond any reasonable doubt, that Yuffie had somehow escaped into the ventilation system. He searched for some sort of possible exit. Finding none, he sighed to himself.

"There's no way out along this section of duct, Yuffie" he said coolly "You'll have to get out somewhere else"

"I'm getting claustrophobic in here!" Yuffie protested vociferously, banging on the sheet metal with a bunched up fist.

"Well I'm dreadfully sorry, but there's really nothing I can do about it" Vincent replied coldly, settling himself back on the threadbare mattress and tapping the soles of his boots on the floor in an uncharacteristically childish moment, he looked skyward and called "Try finding another way out"

There was a pause, and a loud, dramatic sigh.

"Vinny" Yuffie said patiently, curling up against the cold metal and trying to ignore the vicious chills crawling up her body "I am trying to help you get out of this stinking little prison cell, and you can't find it in your creepy vampirical self to be nice?"

From up in the vent, she heard his reply, his deep, rumbling voice muffled even more through a thick sheet of metal:

"I'm aware that you are helping, and you have my gratitude for that. However, I do not see a shaft in the immediate vicinity, so I'm afraid you'll have to find one yourself"

"You suck" Yuffie countered sourly, giving up on the stoic man and instead crawling on through the increasingly narrow confines of the ventilation system. Her hands were beginning to blister.

Up ahead, the vents forked into two dark paths.

Yuffie resolved to follow the right hand path all the way.

                                               ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

_"Ohhh…the wheels on the bus go round and round_

_Round and round, round and round_

_The wheels on the bus go round and round…aallll daaaay loooong!"_

The young, cheerful man with the almost surreal red mohican brought his song to a triumphant finish, grinning widely and rocking back and forth on his bed like a caged lunatic.

"If you do not shut the fuck up" said Cid Highwind, fumbling for the packet of cigarettes that seemed to have gone walkabouts "I shall insert my shoe into your rectum with a wondrous force"

"Oh, come on" the red-haired kid exhorted the grizzled old pilot "Lighten up!"

"No" Cid refused steadfastly, finally locating the packet of nicotine cylinders and stuffing one in his mouth with the urgency of a blood transfusion.

_"I know a man who had a dog and Bingo was his name-oh_

_Bee-I-En-Gee-Oh_

_Bee-I-En-Gee-Oh_

_Bee-I-En-Gee-Oh…" _he offered the last line to Cid, a huge grin on his face.

"Shut the fuck up" Cid repeated sourly through a mouthful of cigarette.

_A small, admittedly pointless comedy interlude there, just to let you all know that Tye is still alive (who else has a red mohican?) because, believe it or not, some people actually like Tye! And two of the three are people I don't know! (Tio scrawls the word 'proud' on her head in black marker) As always, I have absolutely no idea what'll happen in the next chapter. Actually, that's a lie. I do have a small idea. The chapter's called 'Death Among Us'. Someone's kicking the bucket, someone female. Hopefully, that'll keep you guessing! _^_^

_Thanks very much for reading this far. Email me and let me know what you think! __TioRankP@hotmail.com_

_TIO RANK P/DINCHT _^___________^


	15. Chapter 15-Death Among Us

**Chapter 15-Death Among Us**

_'They killed her. She's dead'_

_Vincent Valentine_

_'An introverted kind of soul_

_The earth did open, swallow whole_

_Her next of kin, who lived in sin,_

_Was asking God to let her in_

_"Scared Of Girls"_

_Placebo_

A small thought crept into Reno's head as he watched Rude Catalo pace the confines of their disgustingly pungent cell. A cold, creeping thought that, before all this shit with Gray, before all the business with the mysterious Lameious creature and the Northern Crater, would never have even toyed with the idea of entering his mind. And the thought was:

_'I wonder if Yuffie's okay?'_

This surprised him. Since their forced (but not entirely unwelcome) reunion at the Crater, he'd been thinking about her an awful lot…like how much she had changed…how different she looked…and what she had meant when she said 'It wasn't my fault'. What wasn't her fault? Reno was confused, and couldn't help feeling as if the reason for her distress was something he'd done. Hell, wasn't that the reason for everyone's distress…?

He knew she was a capable young woman, easily able to look after herself, but he couldn't help being a little concerned. These were Midgan men, and, being a Midgan man himself, he had an extensive encyclopaedia of knowledge on such creatures. And he knew that they got their kicks not only from beating up women, but from…well…

_'I swear to God, if they even think about touching Yuffie, I'll castrate each and every one of them' _Reno told himself, his hands unconsciously curling up into fists. And what about Elena? She was practically useless without her gun…sure, she had a powerful punch, but alone, she'd probably be so scared that she wouldn't think to use it. 

A pang of guilt attacked him as he thought of the blonde, of the way she had looked at him, the poorly disguised hurt in her eyes. He didn't love Elena. He'd never loved her…well, that wasn't strictly true. He loved her as a sister, as a friend, as a companion, but never anything more. 

'_Sorry, Elle, but that's the way it is' _And he was a bastard for ever pretending to. She'd believed him. Gullible Elena, always fun to play around with, to make a joke out of, dumb old Laney, good for a laugh. But he'd never truly considered the consequences.

Not like Rude.

Reno peered up at the tall, silent man, a monolith in his own right. One of the most well respected, highly regarded members of the old Shinra regime, level-headed Rude had always let his head govern him. Unlike turbulent, highly-strung Reno, whose heart always seemed to get in the way. 

Except, when Elena was involved, Rude tended to let his heart take the lead. Despite the taciturn Turk's ardent protests (the stridency of which was enough to give him away…Rude hardly ever argued, especially over a silly thing like that) Reno was smart enough to realise that he had strong feelings of some sort for their pretty blonde comrade. But he was too much of an enigma to ever express these feelings. 

Maybe, just maybe, he didn't know how. 

"I wonder how Elena is," Reno said conversationally, flicking his long red braid over his shoulder.

The tall man stopped pacing and turned to him, sunglasses covering his ethereally beautiful blue eyes like doors blocking the way to his soul. Indeed, the few times Reno had seen his friend's eyes, they had been full of life, emotion, baring many secrets about their owner. Rude relished his status as a walking mystery. Unlike, say, Vincent Valentine, he'd chosen this status, and as such enjoyed maintaining it. 'Why' was something Reno had never really questioned, and had never had the time or mental resources on hand to question it. He'd simply accepted it as part of Rude's being.

"I'm surprised you care" Rude remarked dryly, his deep voice almost a rumble.

Reno drew back, wounded "Hey, that was way below the belt, Rude" he protested, "I do care about Laney. Not the way you do, perhaps, but I still care"

Rude was silent. His last remark had hit home.

"Come clean, Rude" Reno compelled "I know how you feel about her"

"She's our friend" was Rude's muffled reply "That's all"

"Bullshit" Reno retorted with typical lack of subtlety, "Look man, it's pretty obvious, even to an idiot like me, that you care about her. But you care more than most people"

"That's because most people have no regard for her feelings" Rude replied. "You included" 

"I care! For fuck's sake, Rude, I genuinely care about her! But she wants me to love her…and I don't think I can do that"

Once again, Rude said nothing.

"She hasn't got family, like you have. And she can't depend on herself, like I do. Haven't you noticed the way she dotes on us?"

_'Of course I have!' _Rude thought. "She's…young, though" he answered falteringly.

"Elena is five years younger than you" Reno reminded "five years isn't much of a gap"

"She's twenty one," Rude reasoned "And I am twenty six. Big gap, Reno"

"So you do think of her in that way" Reno grinned, satisfied with Rude's response "Look man, I understand. Even a man like you falls for feminine charms sometimes. I know you think she's a forbidden fruit, but…"

"Didn't stop you though, huh?" Rude remarked callously.

Reno gave him the same wounded look. 

"I'm sorry" Rude apologised coldly "I just don't want to hurt her, Reno. I know in some ways I remind her of Tseng. I honestly believe that getting…involved with her would only open old wounds"

"But you do love her, right?" Reno asked.

Rude didn't respond.

"Then if you love her, make her happy" Reno said, "Fuck knows, I've made her miserable. The least you could do is let her know that you care"

_'But it's not as simple as that' _Rude wanted to say, but he didn't. It wasn't the done thing to protest about such matters. In fact, it wasn't the done thing to even address such matters. Once again, the tall man clammed up. That was it. End of conversation.

_"Incey-Wincey Spider, climbed up the water spout…"_

"If I have to hear about Incey-Wincey fucking Spider one more time I swear I'll break your goddamn arm!"

The kid stopped mid-song, stared, his icy blue eyes coldly frightening in spite of his childish demeanour. They seemed to hold some sort of testament to his all-too-obvious mental disability. Cid Highwind, satisfied with the moment of silence he'd created, leaned back on the bed and cringed inwardly at the squeal of springs. He desperately wanted a cig, but he deliberately denied himself one. He was rationing them. God knows how long he'd be in here for, and he knew that if he had to stay in here with the mohawked lunatic, he'd need them.

"You really are a grouchy old bastard, aren't you?" he commented, voice tinted with a strange childish innocence. It was the first time the young man had said anything serious (as opposed to reciting nursery rhymes loudly and tunelessly) and Cid noticed that his voice was actually deep. So deep that it seemed like he'd stolen it from someone else, someone of Cloud's age and build. It didn't suit him; he was far too juvenile, for one thing. What possessed twenty-something year old men to sing nursery rhymes? A horrific thought stole into Cid's mind and he felt himself shiver with the pure dread. Perhaps the kid had just gone stir-crazy.

Perhaps, in time, so would he.

"No" Cid corrected gruffly, shaking the horrible thought away and staring blankly at the ceiling. He closed his eyes, welcoming the enveloping blackness that ensued "I'm just not used to the presence of a pain-in-the-arse kid with a thing for kiddy rhymes. Well…apart from Yuffie…but at least she shuts up when I tell her to"

The young man muttered something undoubtedly rude under his breath. Then, in a reproachful, hurt tone: "I'm only trying to lighten things up here"

"Well don't" Cid ordered sharply.

"I want to get out just as much as you do" he tried again, re-arranging the flopping spines atop his head.

Cid opened his eyes "Shut up" he ordered in the most derogatory tone he could muster "Or I will ram my fist into your nostril"

The young man sighed in annoyance. "Oh come on" he grumbled "At least join in with me. That might cheer you up."

"It won't" Cid confirmed, glaring at the ceiling.

"It might" he replied helpfully. And before Cid could utter another sarcastic, biting remark, the young man with the bizarre red Mohawk burst into yet another round of spontaneous, tuneless song.

_'Do you know the muffin man?_

_The muffin man?_

_The muffin man?_

_Do you know the muffin man…?" _he trailed off, grinning widely and once again offered the last line to Cid.

"No I fucking don't" Cid answered. 

Yuffie dropped ten feet from cold confines of the air vent and landed on her feet with a loud, undignified thump. Straightening up, she shook every limb, cramped from her time in the vents. It felt good to be free.

Where she'd landed was uncertain…but she hadn't strayed too far from Vincent's cell, so getting back to rescue the grouchy old dude shouldn't be too much of a chore. Slowly turning her neck, she began to examine her surroundings.

Dank, mottled grey concrete lined one side of the room, tiny grills serving as windows punched into the greyness, allowing a paltry amount of light to filter through. Thick dust rode on the tiny shafts of light. On the other side, her left side, the wall was punctuated with blue steel doors that immediately caused a spark in Yuffie's memory.

"The cells" she said aloud, remembering the coldness of the corridor when she had been led out of her own cell. Not knowing which cell was whose, she grabbed her only weapon, a practically useless yet ornamental palm-star she kept with her as a luck charm, she set about picking the lock of the one closest to her.

The grinding sound of metal versus metal immediately sent a dislikeable shiver down her spine, but she kept at it, slipping the thin blade of the throwing star into the slot, bending the flimsy metal to fit the lock. For a moment, she feared that it wouldn't work, that she had failed, but to her endless relief (and surprise) the lock clicked, spasmed, turned. 

As she quietly pulled open the door for fear of alerting someone, her finger pressed to her lip in a warning to whoever the room contained, she peered round the wall of peeling blue emulsion and steel.

There was no one there. What there was, however, was the biggest stash of weaponry and materia Yuffie had seen in her life. Her eyes widened; the expression of a child in an unattended sweet shop. Entering the room, she looked around, mouth practically watering. The first thing she noticed was her Oritsuru, the steel shuriken folded to look like an Origami crane. It was beautiful, but a deadly weapon, her most powerful after the Conformer. She noticed that all the materia had been removed from the slots, but she also noticed a huge glowing pyramid of materia, pinks and blues and greens and even a few reds among the shining pile. 

"God, they're better materia hunters than I am!" Yuffie said incredulously, studying the wonderfully iridescent pyramid, so neat, so beautiful…out of pure spite, Yuffie set about removing one of the Summon materia from the very bottom of the pile. It was Shiva…Yuffie could see, carved crudely into the scarlet glass, a tiny depiction of the beautiful Ice Goddess. She'd summoned this many times. Unable to stop herself, she began to help herself to the materia. Slowly at first, picking up every separate orb and studying it before placing it in her Oritsuru. Then, growing quickly tired of being fastidious, she began to become more greedy in her pillaging, stuffing armfuls of materia everywhere, down her sweater, in her pockets. She grabbed the cylinder of various armlets, pushing them up her arms until the sheer weight of them began to weigh her down. Then she set about attaching the materia to herself, grabbing greedily each one, shiny green, blood red, soft purple…she, of course, kept all the best materia for herself, popping the orbs into her very own Minerva band armlet, giving everyone else random materia combinations. She had a rough idea of whose armlet was whose…Vincent owned the Imperial Guard, and she knew that Rude always had a slotless Ziedrich…

Eventually, the ninja had whittled the huge pile down to about twenty Materia, all low-level Attack materia. She had no use for such trivialities…not when she had Comet and Kjata at her command. Grabbing her Oritsuru, which also glimmered with the translucent orbs, she left the rest of the weapons behind. She planned to return for them at a later date, but right now, she wanted to get everyone out of this hellhole, rescue Brody, and then go home. Reaching for the set of spare keys that hung on the wall, suspended on a single rusting nail, she smiled. This was her chance to prove herself; this was her chance to prove her worth. 

She wasn't going to mess it up.

Elena sat opposite her companion, the far too quiet Nanaki. The dog-like beast was curled up on the flea-ridden, torn mattress, his golden eye fixed on nothing in particular, flicking his flaming tail at irregular intervals. On the surface, he seemed content, but Elena knew otherwise. She shivered, realising how cold she was. Yuffie had taken her only sweater. She pulled herself further into the warmth of her black jacket, drawing her knees up to her chest.

"Red" she suddenly said, cringing; her voice sounded so much louder in the enveloping silence.

The beast moved his head a little, so his eye was focused on the pretty blonde's face.

Elena wrung her hands nervously. "Um…what do you think they're going to do?"

"To us? Who knows" Nanaki said matter-of-factly, once again resting his head on his paws and turning his ears back "Perhaps they'll use us in some of their freakish experiments. Perhaps they'll just kill us"

"You're a real ray of sunshine, aren't you Red?" Elena told him bitterly. She'd been hoping for something comforting, something reassuringly foolish, something like what Reno would have said in the same situation.

_*You've got to stop comparing everyone to Reno* _she scolded herself, pressing her face against her knees and inhaling the scent of cotton and soap powder. Her eyes closed, and she sat there for a while, calm, almost dozing.

Suddenly, the lock turned. Elena almost jumped out of her skin, and Nanaki's ears stiffened. He raised his head, his good eye focused questioningly on the door. The blonde thought she could detect a hint of fear behind the glimmering gold sheen of his eye. In fact, the way his whole body was set, almost as if ready to pounce…Elena thought for a horrible, tense moment that Nanaki's negative predictions were right. Then the door swung open, creaking loudly, and she was confronted with the grinning visage of Yuffie Kisaragi.

"Argh! Get those…those…_things_ out of my sweater! You'll stretch it!" Elena screeched, throwing her hands in the air in an expression of horror. Nanaki merely relaxed again, his formerly tensed limbs giving way so he could once again recline. An expression of calm crossed his face.

"Shut up!" Yuffie hissed quietly, shoving her hand across Elena's mouth. The loud clank of armlets clashing together filled her ears, and she cringed "Do you want to escape or what?"

Elena was even more horrified. Ripping Yuffie's hand away, she took a step back, calming herself down. She wiped her mouth as if Yuffie's hand had been smothered in some sort of foul-tasting liquid. Then, annoyed, she turned her back on the ninja, crossing her arms and facing the wall.

"Yuffie, how did you get here?" Nanaki enquired calmly from his perch on the bed.

"They were gonna 'have some fun' with Brody and me" Yuffie explained nonchalantly. Her panic at the notion had evaporated since her escape, replaced with a strange feeling of light-headed exhilaration. Elena turned away from the wall, suddenly realising that sulking was no fun when nobody noticed you were doing it "But Brody beat the crap out of them so I could get away, I crawled through the vents, and you should have seen the pile of materia I found!" she gestured to her bulging pockets. Grinning breathlessly, she handed one of her armlets to Nanaki, and another to Elena. The adrenaline of her escape had begun to kick in a little late.

Clenching the metal band in his teeth, Nanaki pulled his front paw through until it rested comfortably on his upper leg. Then, slowly, he asked "Yuffie, who are 'they', and who is 'Brody'?"

"Oh…sorry…" Yuffie grinned sheepishly "Brody's this lady they always beat up. She's been here for ages, and they always pick on her" Again, Yuffie's manner was so nonchalant and airy that Nanaki and Elena both feared she'd been drugged up "And 'they' are a bunch of creepy little guys that are in charge of these cells. The leader's called Rat Face"

"Is that so?" Nanaki mused. "Well, Yuffie, seeing as you're so…er…energetic right now, I think you should go and let everyone out. Elena and myself will back you up should…er…'Rat Face' turn up"

"You think I'm lying, don't you" Yuffie scowled, her bright smile disappearing in favour of a dark, threatening scowl that would be more suited to someone with Reno's temperament than to someone of Yuffie's sprightly airiness. "I'm not!"

"I know you're not" Elena re-assured softly, and this was partly true. 

Sensing this, Yuffie peered around her for signs of Rat-Face/Shawn and his lackeys. Seeing none, she wordlessly loped round the corner, wielding the bunch of keys and her Oritsuru.

The weaponless Elena and Nanaki followed.

Yuffie placed key after key in the lock, getting more and more frustrated with each attempt. So, when she finally came across the right key, she let out a loud cheer, and immediately clamped her hand over her mouth. She mentally kicked herself. Pulling the door open, she clamped her finger over her lips to warn the occupant (or, indeed, occupants)

There was only one person inside, and that person was Vincent.

"Told ya I'd be back!" Yuffie whispered triumphantly, handing Vincent his Imperial Guard armlet. 

Regarding her curiously with his quick garnet eyes, he took the armlet from her, snapping it around his arm. "I won't ask" he said, voice containing a tiny trace of humour. 

"Best not" Yuffie agreed "but I made it…no thanks to _you _of course"

A tiny grin, easily missable, crossed Vincent's face, and Yuffie had to kick herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She'd always thought Vincent was kinda handsome, but with that smile…he could possibly rival someone like… 

_*Reno*_

…Cloud. She smiled back, her lilac pupils meeting his in a wonderful clash of colours.

Elena and Nanaki both entered the newly opened cell, thus interrupting her daydream. They had run for cover when Yuffie let out her triumphant yell. 

"Grabbed this for you" Elena told the tall man, handing him his Buntline. Surprised, Vincent lost all traces of the grin and instead took the rifle from Elena, nodding thankfully, expression once again flat as stone. "Thank you, Elena" he said as he holstered the gun.

"That's okay" Elena holstered her own pistol, a tiny black gun not unlike the one the soldier had hit Brody with…

_'…Brody…' _Yuffie's mind registered the thought in its entirety. Then, suddenly, the gravity of the situation hit her. Her eyes widened, muscles tensed, as she realised just how much danger Brody was in. And all for her.

"Come on!" she suddenly exclaimed, grabbing the loose cloth of Vincent's black shirt and tugging him into a trot.

"What are you doing?" Vincent enquired with his standard coolness, pulling easily out of her grip and regarding her with a blank, ambiguous expression.

"We're going to rescue Brody, duh!" Yuffie answered, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. She stopped just short of the doorway, exhorting them to follow "You've got to help me!"

"But…but what about the others?" Elena protested weakly, peering behind her at the expanse of cells.

Yuffie gave her a 'Look'. "Elle, the others are safely behind big steel doors! They can last for a bit longer…but Brody's in danger, right now! Please?"

"Why are you so intent on saving this girl? She means nothing to AVALANCHE or our cause" Nanaki asked with typical straightforwardness. He'd noticed how fervent Yuffie was on the subject; there had to be a reason.

"Because she saved me" was Yuffie's simple answer, and it was clear from her expression that no more was to be said. 

Elena, Nanaki and Vincent exchanged glances.

"Okay, Yuffie" Vincent finally agreed grudgingly.

"She's in the West Wing, wherever that is," Yuffie told them, her hand travelling to her Oritsuru. She ran a finger along its sharp edge very lightly  "I don't think we have much time, so if you're coming with me, keep up!" she took off without another word, her sneakers slapping against the dusty stone. Vincent followed her, not bothering to argue with her somewhat injudicious decision. Nanaki stuck to the tall man's heels.

"Who the hell died and made her God?" Elena growled, grabbing her gun from its holster and following them.

"I don't know who the fuck you think you are, missy, but I think you need taking down a peg or two"

A bunched fist drove its way into one of Brody's prettily high cheekbones. She yelped very, very quietly. She didn't want them to have the satisfaction of knowing they'd hurt her.

"Fuck you" she spat, fingers clenching against the sharp pain that speared her when she spoke. Her narrowed eyes stung with spontaneous tears. 

"You don't know when to stop, do you?" Shawn said, barely able to disguise his contempt at the 'never-say-die' attitude of his former cohort "You have to keep on going, don't you?"

"Why should I have to stop?" Brody said, emphasising each word through aching jaws. The crushing pain in her cheek was intense…she had felt the bone shatter, dissolve into some vile jelly, her eye filling with liquid, swelling like a water-balloon, while her mouth seized up, unable to move for a moment. But she had been through worse.

"Because if you don't…I will kill you" Shawn answered, and he was so coldly matter-of-fact that it sickened her further. She did not doubt for a second that the greasy bastard would kill her. Part of her, in fact, the most part of her _wanted_ him to kill her. She wanted to die. Two months stuck in a dirty cell…two months of being beaten, raped, beaten some more…perhaps it was what her sea-faring father would call 'Cabin Fever'

"Rather die in defiance than live on my knees" Brody answered, standing shakily.

Shawn hit her again. His fist connected with the rapidly swelling area of her cheek, and this time Brody couldn't help crying out. The smashed bone of her cheek ground painfully into the rest of her face. Dizzy and sick, she fell back in her chair, hitting the back of her head on the solid wood. The wound that had been caused by the butt of the lackey's gun opened again. 

"Still feel rebellious, Wells?" Shawn said, and a ghost of a smile appeared on his face. Just out of spite, he smashed her once again in the face, his fist curled so tightly that his knuckles were white, his gold ring gleaming as his fist smashed into Brody's open mouth. Knuckle and metal met teeth and lips in a bloody, sickening clash. Brody heard and felt everything, seemingly in slow motion, her teeth cracking like her cheek had, the sharp, stomach-churning burst of pain that bled from her mouth to her face, her arms, her legs, her cheek…screaming inside, she tasted metallic blood, pouring from her gashed lips, felt it spilling warmly over her chin, saw it, a dark scarlet smear across Shawn's fist. Slowly, she pulled her lips from her teeth. Fresh pain, glassy and acute joined the dull ache of before. Her head spun dangerously.  

"...Y…yuh…" Brody dribbled blood, spitting out torrents of it as she spoke. Her shaky hand reached up and gently wiped some of it away "Y…yuh…you…whore…"

"Whore, huh?" This time there was no mistaking Shawn's grin "As you would say, Brody, rather a live, rich whore than a dying whore"

"I…I'm not…a whore" Brody growled gutturally.

Shawn grinned. He was enjoying this. The black, shining body of his gun flashed, and the butt end crashed into Brody's head. This time, Brody didn't bounce back.  

"That's debatable" Shawn watched as the woman slumped over, her head lolling loosely to the side. Her eyes, bloodshot and lifeless, stared up at him, a hint of resentment lurking behind them.

Shawn decided to do the decent thing. Raising his gun, the same kind of pistol Brody had been hit with earlier on, he pulled back the safety catch. Gently, he placed the muzzle on the side of Brody's head, by her furiously pounding temple. The woman didn't move, or offer any kind of protest. Her bloody, mashed lips moved slightly, her smashed teeth flashing pink for a second before the lips closed again. A tiny, hoarse croak escaped her throat, but it meant nothing.

Shawn pulled the trigger. A deafening dry crack filled the little room. For a split second, Shawn recoiled. Then there was silence.

Pulling the bloodied muzzle away, he studied his work.

The lifeless body of the tortured Brody Wells studied him back, lips twisted in a silent expression of thanks.

Satisfied, he holstered his gun and went on his way, leaving through the back door.

"What the hell was that?"

Elena instinctively cocked back the safety catch, holding the gun in both shaking hands. She pressed her back against Vincent's, who also reached for his gun. 

"It came from over there…" Yuffie crept carefully to the corner, peering around tentatively. There was no one there, but that didn't stop her from readying her Fire 2 materia. 

"I guess…we have to check it out…" Elena gulped down the glut of fear that was steadily rising in her throat along with bitter nausea. Steadying her hands, she tossed back a lock of honey-blonde hair and, with Vincent and Nanaki close behind, crept up to the door. 

She placed her hand on the cold metal of the handle, pressing it down very, very hesitantly. The door clicked as it opened, the click so much louder in the apprehensive, tense silence. The cheap, forest-green coloured paint on the walls was peeling, she noticed critically, as she pushed the door open and, pointing her gun, leapt in the doorway.

"FREEZE!" she barked with absolutely no conviction, promptly dropping her guard as she saw the room was empty, save for one woman, hands clasped in her lap, sitting on a chair in the corner.

"Hey, miss?" Elena studied her carefully. Blood dribbled steadily from her closed mouth. Her cheek was a huge mass of black and purple bruise, completely at odds with the paleness of her face and the blackness of her hair. An ugly montage. Her eyes were wide and unblinking, the left one swollen and leaking some alien fluid, a mixture of tears and blood. She seemed to be weeping, although she was clearly dead. 

It was a haunting sight.

"She's dead" Vincent said matter-of-factly, creeping up behind Elena. They watched quietly as Yuffie joined them, her face lighting up in recognition. Elena almost felt sorry for her.

"Brody!" she exclaimed brightly, bouncing into the room with lamentable cheer "I came back for ya!"

She felt Vincent's cold metal claw on her shoulder and flinched. She didn't like it when Vincent touched her. There was never any warmth, not even in his human hand, and his mere presence sent shivers down her spine.

"They killed her," he told Yuffie coldly, his red eyes burning down into hers "She's dead"

Yuffie looked from Brody's body, to Vincent, and shook her head "No way…" she shook her head, eyes wide and disbelieving "But…but…"

"I'm very sorry" Vincent apologised sincerely, and for once there was a genuine sense of emotion in the stoic man's voice.

Yuffie hung her head "I guess we were too late, huh?" she said sullenly, trying to hide her upset.

"Guess so" Vincent agreed nonchalantly, removing his claw from Yuffie's shoulder.

Elena hand replaced Vincent's. The ninja flinched again, but Elena's eyes were full of comfort and compassion. There was something so Tifa-like in that gaze that, rather than fight her, Yuffie let Elena comfort her. She'd been too late for Brody…

"Come on, then" Yuffie shook her head to free herself from the sense of self-disappointment that was threatening to eat her up. "We've got to get everyone else…before they do the same to them"

This time, nobody argued.

_God, this was a bitch to write. I think this whole 'escape from wherever' thing is going to be difficult…_

_Thanks a lot to Magnum Opus, author of the very excellent 'Dawn' (Another Reno x Yuffie fic, go read!) who has kindly read all of the fic so far and given me so much feedback…thank you, M.O _^___^__

_Roll on Chapter 16- 'Hope'_

_Comments, all the rest, to TioRankP@hotmail.com_

_Thanks a bunch!!_

_TIO _^___^


	16. Chapter 16-Hope

**Chapter 16-Hope**

****

_'We'll be okay'_

_Yuffie Kisaragi_

_'She's led to believe that it'll be OK   
Look at your face, scarred in dismay   
But times have changed   
And so have you   
I think I'd rather   
Crucify than learn   
(Take so much away from inside you   
Makes no sense, you know he can't guide you   
He's your fucking shoulder to lean on   
Be strong}'_

_"Brackish"_

_Kittie_

As Reno and Rude dozed, each curled up like sleeping children on their respective mattress/wall arrangements, something alerted them, waking them up.

It was the grating, clashing sound of keys turning in the lock.

"Who the hell is that?" Reno growled, voice thick with sleep. He rubbed his eyes, the shadow of his hands momentarily extinguishing the cold flame of his eyes. Rude flipped his sunglasses back over his eyes, pushing himself into a sitting position. Both shivered involuntarily against the biting chill of the damp, stale air that circulated lazily around their tiny confinement.

The door slid open with a shriek that set Reno's hackles on end, and he felt instinctively for his nightstick. He scolded himself when he remembered it wasn't there. But, as he kept reminding himself, old habits died very hard. As the final reverberations of the echo died, his hackles settled again, and he instead bunched his long, slender fingers into fists. From the corners of his eyes he saw Rude do the same, his own bunched fists raised up to his face, settled below his exposed eyes. It was his defensive stance. Reno instinctively stiffened up, waiting for the legions of soldiers, for the angry warlord or the crazed professor, whichever one chose to kill them first.

To their surprise, there were none. The two Turks were confronted instead with Yuffie Kisaragi, fingers pressed firmly to her lips in order to shut them up. Her eyes, today a very pale lilac, were wide and warning. Reno though he saw a small smile cross Yuffie's face when she noticed who the cell's occupants were, but he dismissed it as wishful thinking…her smile was something he yearned to see right now, a splash of colour and beauty to paint over the monotony of their surrounding. Even if she wasn't smiling, she looked healthy enough. A bruise decorated her forearm, almost hidden by her rolled-up sleeve. It had probably been acquired from her drop out of the air vents. Her eyes were a little puffy, but then, Reno reminded himself, she wasn't quite over her illness yet. Something Cloud should have taken into account before dragging them all out on this ridiculous little journey. Reno felt angry bile rise up, but shoved it down. Losing his temper wouldn't do anyone any good. 

"I'm here!" Yuffie announced grandly, though her voice was hushed and somewhat raspy. A wide, although slightly forced grin appeared on her round, slightly pale face "And I even brought backup"  
As if on cue, Vincent quite literally appeared from nowhere, looming silently over her like a huge sentinel. His cape, fashioned from a luxurious yet durable red material similar to velvet, billowed out behind him, caught on the tail of a cold breeze, and he resembled some sort of Scarlet Pimpernel-esque storybook hero. Except, of course, for the blood-red eyes, the oil black hair, the metallic talons.

"Hey Yuffie, you seem to have gone up a few cup sizes" Reno gestured to the orbs of materia stuffed inside Elena's sweater and offered his customary grin "What does that make you…Double D?"

Yuffie blushed prettily. "Shut up, Reno" she said, though her tone wasn't as acid as it usually was when she retorted to such Reno-isms. It was almost giggly… 

"Reno! Rude!"

An excited female voice interrupted Reno's analysis. Elena burst into the cell, holding a bundled mass of nightstick and gun and materia. "Are you two okay?" She stared at Reno. He looked so different out of his Turks uniform…he looked…_wrong, _somehow…sure, he still looked every bit as rebelliously gorgeous in his loose black jeans, grey t-shirt (emblazoned with the unintentionally appropriate slogan 'Evidently, I'm socially unacceptable') and thin navy blue jacket, his newly-clean hair tightly bound in a thin plait that rested like a thin trickle of blood between his narrow shoulder blades. But without his Turks uniform, he seemed to have lost his identity. He seemed to have isolated himself, no longer a Turk, yet not an AVALANCHEr. 

"We're fine" Reno assured, taking his nightstick and placing it in his belt loop, where it rested comfortably. "How 'bout you?"

"Could be better" Elena commented a little curtly, scanning the unmoving figure of her taller friend. Rude was still, staring at the damp grey concrete wall through the shaded lenses he had flipped over his eyes. Elena took a few tiny, tentative steps forward, her dainty little feet clicking a little on the floor, and reached out an arm, tugging gently at the starched cotton of his blazer. He flinched, as if she had shocked him, stepping away a little before, turning to face her, he offered a watery half-smile.

"You scared me," he told her softly, his deep voice a low rumble in his throat.

"I'm sorry" Elena's apology was genuine. Rude relaxed. She released her grip on his jacket and, letting her hand linger for a second on his arm, turned away, offering him a tiny smile. 

"And how about you?" Reno asked, addressing directly the somewhat subdued ninja. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine" Yuffie insisted boredly, approaching the question as if she had been asked it thirty times in a row "I'm not gonna suddenly keel over, Reno, I'm not that weak"

"It's not a matter of being weak," Reno told her seriously, a Cloud-esque look of patronising concern adorning his handsome face "You're not well. No matter what you say, or what Cloud tells himself, you're still sick"

"I am not!" Yuffie squeaked indignantly. Reno thought she was weak. Great. She straightened up, ignoring the complaints her limbs offered in return.

Reno extended an arm. He placed his cool palm across Yuffie's forehead, and could feel straight away that it was still warm. Yuffie went to flinch, but stopped herself, relaxing. Not many people touched Yuffie Kisaragi and got away with it, but Reno's touch was so gentle and almost warming. It was a welcome comfort. 

"You've still got a bit of a fever," he informed her matter-of-factly, gazing down at her, his otherworldly eyes meeting hers in a clash of colours, stormy grey meeting luminescent blue. She dropped her gaze, embarrassed, and moved away from him. His arm remained extended, palm outstretched, for a short while after she left him, seeking her warmth and the softness of her skin, beseeching, beckoning for her return. It was in vain. He drew his arm back slowly, replacing it at his side.

"Yeah, well, I'm feeling fine" Yuffie mumbled, folding her arms across her bulging chest and shivering. The room was cold. She stared at the walls, naked cement, mottled with damp and chipped over the years, presumably by prisoners far more unruly than themselves.

"Yeah" Reno nodded, deciding to humour her "You look it"

Elena raised her eyebrows. Everybody in the room knew that Yuffie did not look at all fine. Her skin, usually a sort of tan-olive colour, was pale and ashen. There were faint grey smudges beneath her half-closed eyes and bruises painting her arms, peering out from beneath the rolled-up sleeves of Elena's sweater. She looked sick. 

"Okay" Reno shook his head, freeing himself from his foolish yearning "So the issue now is: Getting The Fuck Out Of This Shithole" he grinned, eager to resume his position as 'obnoxious young male' "Right?"

"Inelegantly worded, but absolutely correct" Nanaki offered, the first time the red beast had made himself heard. "And one has the feeling that everyone else has been scattered around the building. One has the feeling that Cloud especially is going to be heavily guarded"

"'One' is going to kick the ass of every fucker 'one' comes across," Reno mocked almost immediately, grinning impishly at the smaller redhead. "'One' doesn't give a fuck whether you're gonna help, my pedigree chum"

"Don't mock me" Nanaki growled, a low rumble emanating from the back of his throat. A warning growl. Reno decided it best to leave the agitated beast be.

"Okay…so…" Reno cleared his throat "Where do we go from here?"

"If you'll excuse my brashness" Vincent spoke up, stepping further into the confines of the concrete cell "I suggest we get going" 

Reno nodded. But before they left, one final glance at Yuffie, one final meeting with her clouded lilac eyes confirmed what he'd suspected. Verified those strange feelings he'd forced into dilution for fear of their danger. 

He was no longer falling for her. He'd already fallen.

Before Yuffie had escaped, before Brody had been brutally murdered, Gray had been a busy woman.

She braced both hands on the lever and, with a grunt of effort, pulled it down. Almost immediately she was greeted with a hiss and a puff of pale blue smoke from one of the pipes. Coughing a little, she stepped back, waiting with one arm over her eyes until the smoke cleared and she could examine her handiwork.

It took a little while for the air to clear, and when it did, she still had to blink against stinging tendrils of lingering smoke. Inhaling the smoky air without even a cough, she smiled slightly. 

Tifa Lockheart was still locked up in her man-sized tube, but the liquid that had formerly surrounded her like some sort of bizarre amniotic fluid was gone. Gray assumed it must have evaporated…after all, she didn't really understand the science behind it all, she was only following instructions.   

"Come along, Tiffie" she cooed sweetly to her unconscious captive, tapping the glass with a long, dextrous forefinger "We're going on a little journey. You could prove very useful to me"

Unsurprisingly, Tifa's inert body said nothing. Her pale, bloodless face stared soullessly at her captor.

"What do I mean?" Gray mimicked an imaginary reply, her gravelly throat picking up Tifa's smooth, husky tones almost perfectly. She placed her hands on her hips "Well, sweetheart, we're going to fix it so that your little friends will finally find their way out of their cages, and will roam the building like proper little sewer-rats. But to do this…I'll need bait" Gray stopped to grin widely at her own intelligence "Some sort of bait, to lure them out where I can catch them. After all, Tiffie…" she turned back to her captive, a maternal smile on her face "…We can't have rats loose in the building, can we sweetie?"

Tifa was still silent. As the smoke dispersed, colour slowly began to bleed back into her deathly pale skin. 

"I want you to meet someone very special, Tiffie" she continued, oblivious to the fact that the caged brunette couldn't hear her, much less force out a bitchy reply. She extended one arm towards the doorway. 

If Tifa had been conscious, she would have noticed the little woman leaned casually against the doorframe, the woman that had been lurking in the shadows like a malicious phantom. Unlike Gray, she looked very delicate, like the slightest touch would shatter her frail-looking body. Her face was that of a hardened slum resident, pinched slightly at the chin and nose, pale, decorated with the occasional scar, but even though she had this air of toughness about her, she still looked as delicate as a porcelain doll. In fact, she was so diminutive in height that she resembled a porcelain doll. 

The thing that stood out most about her, though, was the striking blue of her eyes in contrast to her jet-black hair. She looked like she could possibly be Juvi's smaller sister, but her features were far smaller, far more defined and angular. The small woman was undoubtedly pretty…in fact, she was downright beautiful. But there was a meanness about her eyes and mouth. She seemed to have a temper.

"This is Joanne" Gray said, by means of introduction "Joey to her friends…you can call her Joanne"

Joey ignored Gray, instead examining the far taller woman in the tube with a sort of vague, if detached interest. "Is this the lady you want me to take care of?" she asked, her voice rough, abrasive and common. She had obviously been raised in the slums...not only did her voice suggest this, but her entire manner. Her graceless walk, the awkward way she held herself and the hardness of her eyes and mouth all bore testament to her slum upbringing. Qualities the diminutive woman shared with other slum kids…like Reno.

"Yes" Gray answered monotonously "I trust Shawn and Vic told you what you're meant to do?"

"They did" Joey confirmed, refusing to look up at her contemporary. "And…don't worry, Loki, I won't fuck this up"

"Good" Gray smiled "Good girl" 

Nearly a whole day after this event, and half-an-hour after their escape, the so-called 'sewer rats' of Gray's rant were still negotiating the twisted maze of corridors that made up the compound they were trapped in. The problem was that all the walls were the same battleship grey. No landmarks or features at all….just endless grey. It wasn't just boring, it was quite frustrating, especially for Reno, whose primary concern was to escape, be it alone or accompanied.

"Fuck!" he yelled in frustration as the small microcosm of AVALANCHE passed yet another featureless expanse of grey walls. "Are we going around in circles?"

"Bear with it" Vincent told him calmly "We'll get there eventually"

"I don't do eventually," Reno said warningly, a scowl twisting his handsome features.

Vincent stopped walking, offering him the 'Vincent' equivalent of a dirty look; left eyebrow raised very slightly. "Well I'm afraid you're going to have to" he said bluntly, his voice void of any discernible emotion. 

Reno didn't argue. Perhaps he was too tired. Perhaps he'd taken notice of Rude's warning glare. Perhaps he was smart enough to realise that arguing with Vincent would be a hugely pointless exercise. Either way, he continued to lope along the corridors, leading the tensed, battle-prepared group round and round until, finally, they found something.

It wasn't a doorway. It wasn't an exit of any kind. It was a trail of blue liquid. How it had suddenly appeared, seemingly originating from nowhere, was something nobody could quite fathom. But it was there, blue, aqueous, unmistakable.

"I suppose we have to follow it, don't we?" Elena asked huffily. She too was losing her temper with the endless expanse of grey corridors. She rolled up her sleeves, perhaps preparing for a battle. Perhaps she just wanted to hit Reno for leading them into this labyrinth. She did neither, crossing her arms across her chest and looking to Rude for an answer.

Rude baulked a little on realising that the little blonde was staring straight at him, then straightened up and scolded himself harshly for ever reacting in such a way. Elena wanted answers, not to jump into bed with him. Still, there was something about her gaze that made his cheeks flame and burn. The softness of her eyes, the placid smile…although he felt conceited for thinking it, he had a feeling that it was he who had inspired the smile.

"I guess so," he answered, wondering if he sounded as nervous as he felt. It was extremely hard to break away from Elena's gaze, but he did so, thanking God for his sunglasses. They were the locked gates to his emotions.

Reno also rolled his sleeves up, revealing bruised, slightly muscular forearms. The stuff on the floor was eerily reminiscent of the oozing grey, mottled liquid that adorned the insides of the Lameious creature's lair. It was far too similar for Reno to be comfortable with it. He sneaked a peek across at Yuffie, and noticed that she was thinking the same. The ninja carefully removed her Oritsuru from her belt buckle. Her eyes were narrow, cautious, worried. Obviously, their escape (such as it was) was still fresh in her mind.

"It's like what we saw in the Crater" Yuffie echoed Reno's thoughts, peering up from the sticky grey-blue trail to Reno's analytical expression. He nodded in an almost grim manner.

"Too much like it" he told her, and for a moment it felt like they were the only two in the room, conspiring with each other over this strange coincidence. Yuffie liked that feeling. She liked conspiring with Reno.

"Worried?" he asked her.

"We'll be okay" Yuffie answered with a small grin "I trust you"

For some reason, her words hit something deep inside Reno. Nobody trusted him, not even his fellow Turks. But Yuffie was so honest in her manner. Her trust was complete and absolute. Back in the crater she had trusted him to get her out alive. He'd almost failed her.

Not this time. He'd get her out. That was a promise. His beautiful blue eyes once again burned directly into hers, and something deep inside her sparked, shone, lit up her eyes like lilac beacons. She was beautiful. And he'd fallen for her. Head over heels, arse over face, he was completely at her feet.

_'No way'_ Reno shook his head and turned away from her before he could think anymore about it. Reno didn't love anyone anymore. He couldn't. Love was a waste of time. He wouldn't be so stupid a third time.

Yuffie was visibly disappointed. The mischievous spark quickly disappeared and a frown creased her features. Her pretty eyes dropped, sunk, losing their lilac tinge to a cloud of grey like sun disappearing behind a cloud. 

Ignoring her as best he could, Reno turned to Red, Rude, Elena and Vincent. Dropping his childishly irritated attitude, he suddenly became very mature, businesslike and straightforward, and for once, Yuffie could see just why he'd been the Turk's leader for so long. _'He didn't get the job on looks alone'_ she scolded herself. '_Although…he easily could have'_ She looked at his Turk cohorts, who were both standing silently, attentively, awaiting Reno's orders. They were so obedient and full of apparent respect. Yuffie wondered how Reno had any power over Rude. He was easily strong enough to knock the lanky redhead out with a single punch.

"If I were you, I'd prepare yourselves for the very real possibility of a battle" Reno said gruffly, sounding more like Cid than Reno "This Lameious bitch is extremely powerful and unpredictable. Be prepared for anything"

Rude and Elena nodded. They were used to this side of Reno.

"We're going to follow this trail," he continued, gesturing to the trail with his free hand "And I don't know where it'll lead. Maybe to more corridors. But…it's got to lead somewhere"

Vincent eyed him with a 'who died and made you God?' expression.

Reno countered this in typically foul-mouthed style "Anyone who has a problem with my leadership, go fuck yourselves right now. Okay?"

"Reno" Rude said warningly "Concentrate"

Reno glowered.

Vincent grinned. The young man was issuing a direct challenge. It went totally against his nature to take people up on such childish things, but this time he might just play along.

"I have no problem with your leadership" Vincent declared impassively.

Reno eyed him again, as if sizing him up.

"Good" he said simply.

_Not too far away, a young woman lay on a cold, bare trolley, stretches out straight, arms at her sides, eyes closed, dark eyelashes spread softly across her deathly white cheeks. Covered only with a thin white blanket, the cold metal of the trolley burned into the equally cold skin of the inert body it hosted. The trolley and the body were the only features in the stark white room. A ceiling-mounted lamp gave off a blinding beam of pure white light, illuminating the pale, ashen skin of the woman below, reflecting brightly off her long, wavy raven hair and shroud-like gown. The walls, sterile and white, merged with the shiny white tiling of the floor, with the bluish-white painted trolley, with her gown and skin and the beam of bright light. Only her hair dared to break the monotony, a wave of black, a pool of oil tainting the sterility._

_On first glance, she looked like a corpse in a mortuary. But closer inspection revealed the faint rise and fall of her chest. Closer listening revealed gurgly, watery breathing and a faintly thudding heartbeat._

_Closer inspection revealed the colour slowly leaking and bleeding back into her opalescent skin._

_Juventa Darkhart was alive._

_Shit chapter, right? Heh. I am trying, honestly, I've just got lots of GCSE crap to do. So, enjoy what I've got. I promise things will begin to look up soon. I'll also bring back Cloud, Cid, Tye etc. very soon (fingers crossed!)_

_Okay, I want to thank the following people: Scarr, Reese and Sabacat (your continued support is keeping me going, and for that I thank you all. Please, don't stop now!) Magnum Opus (for giving me so much feedback) and 'Yu-geek-oh' (brilliant name, by the way ^_^) TioRankP@hotmail.com _

_Thanks again!_

_TIO _^_^


	17. Chapter 17-The Goddess

**Chapter 17-The Goddess**

****

_'Watch the blood run down her face   
But don't take notice   
Watch the blood run down her arms   
Please don't take notice _

_I know you have her soul   
And I see it in your eyes,   
She knows you have her soul   
And she sees it in your eyes'_

_"Paper Doll"_

_Kittie_

Loki Gray was incredibly crafty.

She would have laughed cruelly at anyone who dared suggest it, but she was also incredibly insecure. Because of the latter, she tended to attribute the former to anyone whose intellect and attitude approached her own. 

This was the way she had felt about Sephiroth, the prodigious (and, some had been heard to say, the unparalleled) SOLDIER. Her idol, and her bitter rival.  Gray had admired him. Gray had been in awe at the power he'd had. And at the age of 14, suffering regularly from delusions of grandeur, she had decided that she would be the next Sephiroth.

And if she couldn't…well then…she'd just have to *_create* _the next Sephiroth.

And then she met Tifa, and her megalomaniacal aspirations had shied away, hiding themselves behind the façade of a sociable, even lovable teenager. She and Tifa had decided to join SOLDIER, Tifa to be reconciled with her childhood friend, a guy named Cloud Strife, Gray to make her dreams of greatness a reality.

It was actually Tifa who had sent her back to the brink of insanity. It wasn't strictly her fault. It was the fact that she commanded such respect and admiration from males and females alike (although, generally the males admired her for a little more than her articulate manner and fighting technique) Just like Sephiroth, here was somebody who was loved and respected by just about everybody just because she had been born such a personality. 

God, how she hated her! But at the same time, she was struck with a strange, almost morbid fascination. How had she acquired such status? How was it that Tifa, the ordinary teenage layabout, could hold the people in the palm of her hand like that, whereas Gray, the beautiful sweetheart couldn't even keep one person under her thumb…well, that was not strictly true. One of the first things that had drawn her to Tifa, other than her genuinely lovely way was the fact that she was blindly loyal. She did pretty much what Gray wanted. It was this power over her that she truly appreciated. More than she appreciated her loyalty. More than she appreciated her friendly demeanour. 

And then it had happened. Gray had snapped. It was during their training session, Tifa versus Gray in a training duel. Everyone had been rooting for Tifa. _Everyone._ And this had made Gray incredibly angry. Nobody ever had any faith in her…it wasn't that she was a bad fighter…quite the opposite, she was incredibly skilled and strong…it was that Tifa was this wonderful, beautiful, lovely person.

And she was just…plain old Loki Gray.

During the duel, Tifa had absolutely wiped the floor with Gray. She was much faster, much more skilled, much more learned…her fighting technique was more than impressive, it was breathtaking. But in the middle of the duel, Gray snapped. Forgetting that it was just a training exercise, she had truly laid into Tifa, scratching and biting and kicking and tearing. The audience had been stunned, but they were behind glass walls, they could do nothing.

It had been Tifa that ended it. She had grabbed a small, serrated stone from the floor, and in a panicked, rushed motion, scored a long cut across Gray's lower throat. It hadn't been deep enough to sever her jugular, but enough to send her to the floor. Gray had been hospitalised. Tifa had been thrown out of Shinra for good. 

And this is where Korei Brynne came into the equation. With her awe-inspiring powers, Gray was convinced that this young woman could easily become the next Sephiroth. After all…her power was still in the primary stages. What could she achieve in a few years? What sort of things could she do? By the time she turned twenty, she could have the entire _world _at her feet…

The prospects were too good to ignore. 

 And so to the present day, to the present moment. For almost seven hours (apart from an hour long period of deep, deep sleep) Gray had lain, coiled like a spitting-cobra on the cold, flat metal of the overturned filing cabinet all night, watching Tifa. She didn't mind spending so much time playing the tormentor…she had specifically told Joey to take her time, work at the group, lead them into the trap with their perfect trust. Gray was a sadist, pure and simple. She drank in the torment like a cheap narcotic, loving every minute of it, watching Tifa trying to sleep. Earlier that night, she had played a twisted gamed with Tifa. She had watched eagerly as the tired brunette's eyes drooped, slowly, slowly, drifting off into sleep _ever…so…slowly_…

When it looked as though Tifa was on the brink of deep sleep-the sort of sleep where only your most vital muscles function and you recharge-she would scream. Loudly. The echo alone was ear splitting. Tifa would wake abruptly. Even after the twentieth scream (by then, Gray's throat was becoming sore, but watching Tifa's slow spiral into insanity was like a tonic) she would jump, nearly out of her skin, as though it was a complete surprise.

"_Scaredja, huh?_" Gray had said after what must have been the twenty-fifth scream, voice full of undisguised glee and undisguised hoarseness. And Tifa had said something that had scared her, partly because it was the truth:

"_I'm not scared_" she had said, her voice thick with sleep. Her words were slurred, like those of a sleep-talker "_I was frightened at first. But now I'm just amused_"

"_You have an odd of way of showing amusement_," Gray had said, grinning predatorily.

Tifa had peered up into the darkness, a small gleam of light showing the position of her sleepy, gritty eyes. "_I'm too weary to laugh, and your comedy act is growing old. It's time you thought of something new_" she had said dryly. Gone was the frightened, sick young woman who was afraid to upset Gray, in case she locked her back up in one of those weird machines. In her place was a girl who Gray was no longer sure about.

"_How 'bout snapping your dirty little neck?_" Gray had sneered

And then Tifa had laughed. Not much. A little dry chuckle. Hers was the manner of someone resigned to their fate. "_You haven't got the balls to kill me_," she had said. And then she had slept. Just like that. Perhaps she had been sleep talking anyway?

Gray hadn't screamed anymore that night. She had been too…scared.

_Too scared?_ How un-Sephiroth, and more to the point, un-Gray.

Loki Gray had listened to these words, and wondered how it could be that she was able to frighten an army of muscle-bound behemoths into submission, yet sick young woman, barely awake, found it amusing. Or at the very least, was no longer scared by the constant threats of death. She was shocked, disgusted and frightened to feel a sudden stab of insecurity. Tifa had been telling the truth. Korei had never killed. Shinoda had. Shawn had. Even Josie had. But she hadn't. Though she enjoyed _witnessing_ the slaughter, whenever she had tried to do it, she had frozen. A mental block, placed there since birth and firmly rooted, told her it was wrong. And maybe that was why she had never physically killed someone. Or maybe it was because she didn't have the balls.

'_You don't have the balls to kill me_'

Tifa was finally sleeping, although fitfully, muttering incomprehensible sentences under her breath. There were two heavy, dark sacks under her eyes. Around her wrists and legs, where she was bound, there were bright red cuts, dribbling a liquid that wasn't quite blood. She was obviously stiff and cramped from being tied up to the filing cabinet. 

Anyone else would have felt pity. Gray only felt the tense stillness of the natural predator, reflexes knife-sharp, ready to pounce should her bound victim miraculously broke free.

Anyone else in her position would be content to relax a little, knowing her victim was tightly bound with no way of escape. But in her mind, Tifa was no more bound than she was herself. She was convinced that the brunette would leap up any minute and attack her. 

Clutched in her hot, sweating right hand was a shard of mirror. She seemed either unaware or unconcerned that the jagged shard was slowly but surely slicing into the lean flesh of her palm. This was evident by the small trickle of sticky, shiny claret that beaded the rusting metal of the filing cabinet. Like little red garnets, the droplets of blood splashed onto the thin grey sheet of cold aluminium, daubing it like a sticky, shiny paint.

"I _do_ have the balls to kill you" Gray muttered venomously to the sleeping Tifa. "I have more balls than you can shake a stick at"

Or do I…?

The rapidly tiring group trudged around the maze. Led by Reno, they had dropped their guard after an hour or so of walking. Nobody had approached them. Nobody had even been around. And now they were so thoroughly bored that even the prospect of a battle seemed preferable to the tedium.

"How long have we been walking?" Elena asked, her voice a mixture of childish whine and full-on anger.

"I don't friggin' know!" Yuffie replied in exasperation, "None of us have watches"

Elena glowered, muttering something that sounded strangely like 'retard'

"Stop bickering" Nanaki said placidly, padding a few paces before them. He seemed to be going strong. "I know you're all tired, but it's not like we can stop to rest"

"Speak for yourself, four-legs" Yuffie said, stopping. She leaned back against the wall and slid down, her legs filled with a mixture of achy pain and blissful numbness. The latter soon enveloped the former as she stretched out her slender limbs, not noticing the patchwork of bruises, cuts and dirt she'd acquired since her bath. She leaned her head back on the wall, letting her tangled chocolate hair fall across her face. She made no effort to brush them away.

For once, Elena agreed with her, mimicking her slide. She sighed with relief as her aching legs surrendered happily to the numbing sensation, flexing her toes and closing her eyes.

Reno shrugged "I guess it can't hurt" he said doubtfully, beginning to make the descent into a sitting position.

Vincent elbowed him, prompting a fierce look, which he promptly ignored "We can't let our guard down" he said stonily, and Reno noticed he still had his finger against the trigger of the shining silver Buntline. He was the only one still ready for battle. "Not now. We must be drawing closer to the exit, and I know it will be heavily guarded"

"It doesn't feel like we're getting _anywhere,_" Yuffie contradicted complainingly, staring at her feet. Elena's once-white trainers were a little big for her, but at least she had both of them this time, and they were fairly comfortable, even if they were now scuffed, dirty and thoroughly worn. She wriggled her toes.

"Well I'm sure we are. And I'm sure that there are guards of some sort close to where we are now" Vincent told her, and nobody doubted him. The tall man seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to escapes…and the presence of others. The fact that he was getting edgy about their stopping to rest must account for something. This wasn't childish paranoia. This was a Vincent Valentine prophecy. Nanaki and Yuffie both nodded.

"Okay, okay" Yuffie grumbled, pushing herself back up. Once again, her limbs let out a squeal of complaint. She suppressed it. "If Vinny says we ought to get going, then we should, I guess. He knows better than us"

Reno seemed more than a little annoyed at their faith in Vincent's prediction, but kept clammed up. He didn't want to aggravate the situation or fray tempers any further, and certainly didn't want to live up to his 'whiny bastard' reputation, especially not in front of a certain ninja. He straightened up, watching as Yuffie and Elena stretched their petite frames to iron out the aches and pains. Then, silently, morosely, they began their journey again, with Reno in the lead and Vincent at the very back.

They didn't have to walk far.

"Stop" Vincent suddenly hissed, stopping dead and craning his neck. Everyone did, each set of feet stopping mid-step. They all turned, offering Vincent an identically curious look.

"Someone's here" he said, never taking his eyes off the corner ahead. "Round that corner. I heard them"

"You sure?" Reno said sceptically, examining the turning for a shadow, a flicker of movement, anything. There was nothing at all.

"Very" Vincent confirmed, still staring at the corner. Then, completely out of the blue, he pulled out his Buntline and shot a spontaneous bullet straight at the far wall. The resounding boom of the bullet's release melded with the hollow thud of its passage into the thick plaster of the wall. 

It was also backed up by a shrill exclamation of surprise.

"Show yourself!" Vincent barked, waving the muzzle of the gun in the air to dispel the thin stream of smoke. 

"Only if you promise not to shoot!" the voice of their protagonist was feminine, albeit in a rough, husky way. Nowhere near as gravelly as that of Gray's, but gravelly enough to bear a discomforting resemblance.

"We won't shoot" Vincent returned, holstering his gun but keeping his hand near it should he need it.

There was a shuffle. For a moment, it seemed that the woman would show herself. Then she called back, her voice trembling.

"I don't believe you!" she yelled, followed by the click of a trigger. She too had a weapon. They had to be careful, or she might use it. 

"We won't shoot if you don't" Elena's unusually confident yet suitably gentle voice joined the war of words. Perhaps it was her softness of tone that finally coaxed the woman out. In any case, she emerged, a tiny little thing graced with jet black hair that spilled out from beneath a wide-brimmed hat. Her features were hidden in the shadows cast by the brim, but Elena could just make out a pair of blue eyes sparkling in the darkness. She was dressed in plain, nondescript clothing, red t-shirt and blue jeans. She looked like a Midgar resident. 

Tye would have mistaken her for Juvi.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" Vincent asked, his hand inching closer to his gun. She was holding her own pistol, fingers closed around the trigger gently, She was ready to use it.

"I can't tell you my name" she told him shakily "I've escaped from the cells. If they find me, they'll kill me. I know you've all escaped too. I've heard about you. You're the AVALANCHE guys…" she stopped, flipping the blue brim of her hat further down her face "That's the only reason I'm trusting you"

"Why did you go to shoot us, then?" Elena challenged, her eyes fixed on the muzzle of the small black pistol.

"Because I thought you were _them,_" she answered simply, lowering her gun tentatively. Vincent's hand left his holster too. She calmed a little, her trembling ceased, her voice steadied, she drew herself up to her full height in a display of confidence and trust "Seeing you all now, I know you're not. I've been looking for you since I heard you got out…"

"Do you know the way out?" Yuffie interrupted impatiently.

Vincent issued her with a Vincent 'Look'

"What?" Yuffie said innocently, turning her wide lilac eyes up to meet his narrowed garnet ones "If she's on the run too, she might know where to go!"

Vincent took this in silently. Then, turning back to the shadowed stranger. "My apologies" he commented offhandedly "Please, continue"

Satisfied that they weren't going to hurt her, she finally placed her gun back in its holster "Do you have a cohort that goes by the name of Tifa Lockheart?" she asked.

Almost immediately, Yuffie blurted, "Sure do!" prompting another fierce look from Vincent.

"Then there is no time to lose. She is in grave danger. I trust you know of Loki Gray?" she let the question hang in the air, knowing the answer but waiting for it anyway.

"Yes" Rude nodded, intercepting another of Yuffie's excited blurtings. "What's she done?"

"Too much already. I hope we're not too late" she peered at the group from under the brim of her hat "Do you plan to follow me?"

Vincent, Rude and Reno, as the leaders of the group, exchanged unanimous nods.

"Okay" the woman finished. With this, she took off, looking behind her to make sure they were following. They were, all of them, so gullible...

Josephyne 'Joanne' Avison grinned from the shadows. 

_'I feel for you nothing but pain_

_I am what you will be, you are dying in me_

_I love you, I hate you, I miss you'_

_"What Comes Around"  
Ill Nino_

Yuffie Kisaragi leapt like an enraged tigress from her hiding-place behind the neatly-stacked pyramids of rolled-up brown carpet and, taking a huge springing leap, wrapped her slim arms around Gray's pulsing throat. With this distraction in place, Nanaki crawled around to the newly woken Tifa and had subtly chewed most of the way through each strand of thick cord. The two Turks and Vincent took up improvised positions among the assorted bric-a-brac piled in a pyramid shape in the very darkest corner of the room. Rude stood before a pile of old, dust-caked desks. '_Kinda like the Shinra Building'_, he thought. He peered across at the others. Vincent was holding his lean silver Buntline, and he was more than ready to use it. Reno looked ready to drop off, and had been complaining of a headache all the time they'd been walking. And Elena was behind them, looking thoroughly terrified. 

Yuffie's strong arms pulled Gray down with one hard yank. Her long legs wrapped themselves tightly around Gray's inexplicably thin yet strong torso, squeezing hard with her powerful thighs. Gray gave a breathless yelp and suddenly ducked sharply and jerked violently forward, trying to flip her assailant over her head. Yuffie was attached like a barnacle to a rock, and didn't let go. Her grip tightened. Gray lost her balance and fell forward with a piglike squeal. Her hands were too busy clawing at Yuffie's unyielding arms, and there was nothing else to break her fall. As Gray fell, Yuffie let go and flipped off of her sideways, showing off her impeccable Ninja technique. She landed hard on her backside. The cold stone floor smashed into her, sending a judder of pain fandangoing up her spine, ending somewhere at the base of her neck with a brief pop. She yelped like a scolded puppy and rolled onto her side, clutching her back, before forcing herself up onto her knees. 

Gray gave a bloodcurdling cry as her face smashed hard into the cold stone floor. The sound of her small, well-formed nose crumpling up like a car in a crash echoed sickeningly around the room, amplified three times more. She gave another warbling cry. It wasn't one of her strange shrill cries, the kamikaze ones she uttered while taking down a foe or vice-versa. It was a strangely musical whine, like a dolphin or a whale or something similar. It wasn't a hurt cry at all. It was like a small, painfully tone-deaf child trying their hand at opera. 

"Give it up, Loki!" Yuffie called huskily, voice edged with pain (mostly from her hurt pride). This was the signal. As if on cue, the rest of the team popped up like meerkats from their various hiding places. Rude peered out from behind his boxes, like an old man frightened by trick-or-treaters. Then he stepped out and stood, as Reno would have described it, 'like a tit in a trance'. Vincent, brandishing the gleaming silver rifle with the experienced air of a license-bearing sharpshooter, stood up from the far end of the bric-a-brac (this was mainly dismantled swivel-chairs and old binders and other office-y flotsam and jetsam) Then Reno stood up, appearing like a zombie from a grave in one of those awful made-for-TV movies. 

Tifa looked around at everyone, confused, a brief glimmer of hope sparking in her mind as she noticed Nanaki, mercifully recognising him. On Rude's silent bidding, she scrambled behind the filing cabinet and hid, back up against the cold metal, thanking God and all his angels that she was free from the constricting binds. Finally, Nanaki crawled out of a large luggage-locker that had been laid on its side and left to rust, scrambling out like a mole and blinking his huge gold eye in an effort to get rid of the dust.

Gray rolled over, giving an exasperated grunt of effort as she pushed herself onto her back. Her nose and mouth were coated in a dripping goatee of dark red blood. Her once beautifully crafted nose was now cruelly crushed, almost out of recognition, so that it now resembled a misshapen, swollen lump of bloody meat rather than a nose of any kind. Her lips were pulled back in a strange, emotionless smile, and her teeth were framed with red, the white enamel pink. Her bleak, almost chillingly empty eyes stared unblinkingly.

"Who said I'm giving up?" she said. Her voice was strangely nasal and gurgly. She was now steadily dribbling a gruesome mixture of foaming spit and blood. It was unnerving to hear her talk so calmly when she was obviously in so much pain. She sneered, a failed attempt at a chummy smile. "Joey. You did good"

For a long while, everyone merely peered at the bloody creation sprawled out on the floor, one arm across her exposed stomach, the other with her palm pressed against her forehead as if she had a headache, never coming too close as if her injuries were contagious. Only Reno was brave enough to move that little bit closer to the raw, bleeding girl on the floor. Then he turned. His eyes focused on the woman that had led them here.

She lifted her head a little, her shadowed face finally catching the light. Reno was filled with a mixture of horror, anger and a strange, hurt feeling. He recognised the woman. And he knew she'd recognised him.  

Gray forced herself into a sitting position and stared intently into Reno's pale, confused face. Her stare, bloodshot eyes bulging like a frog's, eyebrows knotted, the blood masking her lower face like a beard and dripping slowly down her sweaty neck in little scarlet runnels, made her look absolutely deranged and disgusting.

"That's right, Reno" she said, her voice gleeful and malicious at the same time "Remember Josephyne? Only she prefers to be called Joanne now, you see. She told me all about you, sweetie"

"Jo…?" he suddenly said in naïve wonderment, and his voice sounded so childlike he was almost Jo's Reno again. Almost, but not quite. 

Gray wiped some of the blood from her mouth, leaving a wet pink smear over her lightly tanned skin. She shook her hand limply, a distasteful expression settling on her face, sprinkling the blood like a fountain over the already dotted floor.

"Jo…I knew it was you" Reno said, his naïve tone replaced by one of dejected apathy. "When did you come back?"

Jo dropped her head again, hiding beneath the brim of her hat. "I…I never went away" she said shamefully, the metallic smell of fresh blood nauseating her "I was always near you"

"Where did you hide?" Reno asked, wanting another glimpse at the face of his long-lost love (or the twisted representative of his former love) She obliged, turning her face up to the light. The underlying spark of sadism, the dark malevolence hidden under the deceptively beautiful blue eyes, assured him that this wasn't the same girl he had known and loved. She had Josie's exterior, but that was just a shell for a completely different girl.

A big bubble of blood formed where Gray's left nostril was hidden. It popped, dribbling like a burst blister down her chin. She didn't notice. She was having too much fun.

"I was here. I was always here" A cold tear ran down her cheek, a crocodile tear, no doubt  "Reno" she said, voice full of eager promise "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Look…do you remember…?"

"I remember a girl who looked like you. But she wasn't you" Reno interrupted coldly. He could almost see the clockwork ticking away at the back of her unnervingly busy mind. He saw Yuffie, out of the corner of his eye, shuffling her feet. It was making the most irritating 'Kssh-Kssh' sound on the dusty floor. But he ignored it.

"How could you say that?" the girl who looked like Jo but wasn't asked. She sounded genuinely hurt and upset, and for a moment the cruel gleam that shone like a dagger in the back of her eyes faded, and she seemed almost humane. And then she closed her eyes. And she opened them, the long black lashes spreading across her cheeks like palm fronds. And the gleam came back. 

Reno said nothing. 

"How can you sit there and see me like this, and pretend you don't care!" she said in a plaintive, almost desperate voice, chin quivering, eyes blinking back hot crocodile tears furiously.  

"Because I _don't_ care," Reno answered simply, folding his arms. "You don't give a flying fuck how I feel, so why should I care about you?" He dropped from his crouch onto one knee, as if he was going to propose marriage and examined her hardened, scarred face studiously. Her beautiful eyes scanned his face piercingly.

"Because I'm the reason you're still alive," she murmured, licking her lower lip and swallowing loudly, eyes flickering across the room fearfully.

"You're an arrogant little bitch," he said blankly, not blinking, just staring. She fell silent, staring at him with wide eyes. Reno had never seen such a mixture of hatred and fear combined in human eyes.

Reno lifted himself off his knees and she looked up at him, begging silently as if he would strike her with a thunderbolt or something. Again, she muttered to herself "I saved you. I homed you." 

"You killed my baby" Reno said sharply, and Josie drew back as if the words hurt her.

"Reno" she said shakily "I was scared!" Dangerous hysteria wavered in her voice. Hot tears spilled over her swollen eyelids, pouring down her cheeks and cutting pink tracks though the mask of dirt.

"You killed my _baby_" Reno implored loudly, his eyes narrow, his fists curled.

"I WAS FRIGHTENED!" Josie howled nasally, seemingly to nobody, slowly shuffling backwards up against the filing cabinet. Her hand crept up to her face, shakily stemming the flow of hot tears from her shining blue eyes, which never left Reno's emotionless face.

"Are you alright Reno?" Yuffie asked, genuinely concerned.

Reno didn't answer. He either didn't hear, or was too annoyed or upset to answer.

Suddenly Gray leapt up, interrupting Jo. She sent a sprinkle of dark blood after her. Yuffie supposed that she had lost half of her blood supply through her nose. She assumed an open-legged stance and pointed both arms straight out in front of her, at Reno. In her hands was a tiny but chunky pistol, identical to Rude's except it was rustier, and she couldn't hold it still.

"She's bluffing!" goaded Tifa's disembodied voice "She doesn't have the balls to use that!"

"I DO SO HAVE THE BALLS!" Gray screamed like a spoilt brat, swinging her violently shaking arms up to the ceiling. "I'LL PROVE IT! I'LL PROVE I CAN DO IT!"

Before Tifa, or anyone could contradict, Gray's shaking hands had squeezed the trigger. The bullet whizzed with a loud, firework-like bang up into the distance and seemingly into oblivion. There was a disturbingly loud, pained gasp, and suddenly Elena recoiled, clutching her upper arm tightly. As they watched, shocked, dark red blooms appeared, soaking into the thick fabric of her jacket like some sort of dye.   

"I did it. Did you hear me, Tifa?" Gray asked, a faint note of hysteria edging her voice, eyes and aim never leaving the object in case it moved. "I did it. I had the balls. Do you wanna come out now and see if I can do it again? See if I still have the _balls_ the second time round?"

No reply. Only silence so brittle you could reach out and snap off a piece.

Gray giggled madly. "Thought not," she grinned. She let her hand and the gun hang by her right thigh

"That's enough, Loki" Jo suddenly said, her voice shaky and downcast but at the same time firm.

"Have I upset you, Joanne?" Gray feigned sadness, transferring the gun to her left hand and placing her right hand upon her cheek in an 'oh-my-how-terrible' gesture.

Jo, too worn to do anything, shot her a look to kill.

For a long while, the entire group stood silent, as if Jo's display of loyalty had hypnotised them. Then Rude stepped forward, arms tensed. His hands itched to close around Gray's windpipe and end her for good. As he stepped, Reno turned. Rude regarded Reno's hunched form with analytical eyes. His blue eyes were full to the brim with hot, scalding tears, all the unshed tears of his tragic past. His mouth was a thin red slit, and Rude knew that he was biting his lips to keep from crying. Then the tall, silent man leaned down and with a gentle, careful touch, cradled Elena's head against his chest. She was conscious, but her eyes were glazed over. She blinked uncomprehendingly as she felt Rude's warmth seep into her, her eyelashes fluttered as she smelled his comforting scent, she trembled ever so slightly as she felt his warm hands travel the length of her body in a clumsy embrace. She was safe. Rude would see to it.    

It was then that Reno blew his last fuse. Without thinking, he marched up to Jo and with a mighty yell shoved her backwards into the filing cabinet, which collapsed, narrowly missing Tifa who scrambled like a startled mole away from the creaking hulk of metal.

Jo squealed, doing a backwards head-over-heels over the big square of paint and rust. Reno chased her over, crawling, grabbing hold of her collar as she came to a stop a little distance away on the grimy concrete.

"You stupid WHORE!!!" Reno yelled, shaking her with each syllable "_You killed MY BABY! How the FUCK can you even PRETEND that you care about me? You shitty, arrogant little whore!_" As he screamed the last word, he shoved Jo down and promptly stood up, breathing deeply and trying to cool his temper a little.

Jo lay immobile a little while, eyes open and unblinking, breathing so shallowly it looked like she wasn't breathing at all. For a frightening moment, she looked almost dead. Then she sat up, like one of the risen dead in a movie. Her eyes were wide, her chin quivered uncontrollably.

"She isn't dead," she said finally, her eyes giving way to a flood of tears. Her dirty, dusty hands found their way to her eyes, and she pressed hard, coating her wet face in thick dust. She began to sob, her body heaving with each breath "She isn't dead, Reno, she's alive, she's here, I didn't want you to know, but your daughter, she's alive…" her words trailed off into nothingness, masked by uncontrollable weeping.

Reno suddenly felt numb. "Are…are you lying to me?" he asked warily, anchoring a thin hand in his red hair and pulling, tugging at it hard. 

Jo drew a shuddering breath "She's here, Reno, honestly she is…I was so scared…so frightened…I was only fucking eighteen!" she pulled her hands away from her face in an almost vicious motion, leaving behind two handprints of thick grime which masked her beautiful but swollen eyes. She stared at him pleadingly, and there was no more hate left in Reno, only pity and love and an overriding need to see his little girl.

"I called her Scarlett" Jo hiccupped, pressing a hand to the rapidly clotting fountains that were her eyes. Her face was a disgusting mix of dust and salty tears. "She's five years old, Reno, but she doesn't know you…I never told her about you"

That hurt Reno deep inside. He felt it as a physical blow, as if someone had stabbed him. "You fucking _bitch_!" he growled, and as he did, the first tear of many trickled down his scarred cheek "How could you do that?"

Jo's eyes were wide and scared, and the tears never stopped pouring from them "Because…because I was scared" she said breathlessly, blinking the hot tears away. She could see through her own blurry eyes that Reno was crying too. Tears poured down his face, running down his scarred cheeks. "Please, Reno, I'm sorry, I…I…" she reached out, trembling hand brushing his arm lightly.

"No you're fucking _not_" Reno snarled, reaching up his hands and almost tearing away the hot tears "You're not sorry, don't even try saying you are, you lying, evil little bitch…"

"Please!" Jo sobbed, her eyes wide and pleading, her face filthy and tearstained but still strangely, grotesquely beautiful. Reno loved her. But he hated her. "Please Reno! Scarlett…she doesn't know her dad. I want her to know you, Reno" her voice was full of teary promises, so earnest and eager.

"Fuck off" Reno growled, and with that he turned, kicked the ground childishly, and ran a few paces before leaning against the wall, resting his face on his arms and dissolving into hot, angry tears. Yuffie turned to Tifa, silently questioning her as to whether she should do anything. Tifa shook her head. She knew from bitter experience that people like Reno just needed to be alone when they were angry. He was the kind of man that would quite willingly lash out at anyone he deemed to be 'interfering'. Although…the way he had been acting with Yuffie recently, she wasn't too sure whether he would lash out at her. Perhaps she'd be safe from his vile temper. Perhaps not. She didn't want to find out. _'Best play safe' _she told herself, rubbing her injured wrists. The feeling of release and freedom was immensely relieving, and though her wrists ached and the cuts stung, she didn't care. She wasn't tied up to the cold, rusting filing cabinet anymore. 

Jo, in the meantime, was weeping relentlessly, the hot tears cutting clean pink tracks through her mask of drying dust. Grimy, dirty hands smeared a fresh film of dust and over her wet cheeks, lining her swollen blue eyes with fine streaks of thick black dirt. Her black hair stuck to her face in soaked, matted tendrils, veining the pale, if dirty skin above the dirt mask. 

"This is all very sweet" came a disembodied voice "But I have no time for this"

Everyone instinctively turned.

Loki Gray grinned in an immensely self-satisfied manner.

"Shut your face" Yuffie seethed, but stopped herself. After all, this was obviously what Gray wanted. She thrived on torment. Tormenting Reno, torturing Tifa…even her own pain seemed to be nothing but an amusement.

"I don't want to" Gray smirked.

"You're a fucking whore," Tifa growled. 

"Actually, I'm Loki Gray" her gaze hardened "But some…and these are the people who count…some know me as the creator of The Goddess. The Goddess, successor of the great, late Sephiroth…"

"What the fuck are you on?" Yuffie asked warily, suddenly feeling a little afraid.

"Tifa. You finally made me see. It's because of you that I am able to stand up here and ascribe such a prestigious title to myself" She smiled maternally. "I thank you from the heart of my bottom"

"What are you on about?" Yuffie asked, glancing at Tifa, who looked thoroughly pissed off.

"Because I have in front of me what I have always desired. I _always_ gets what I want…didn't you know that?" her tone was so contemptuous that Yuffie wanted to walk up and punch Gray right in the face. "I wanted to join SOLDIER…so I did" she waited a moment, letting her bitter rival glare angrily at her. She laughed, lapping up the hatred. Then she continued "And I always wanted Tifa dead"

A look of abject disappointment crossed her face. For a moment, she loosely resembled a spoilt brat. "That was the only thing I never got," she said sorrowfully. Then she brightened up "But that's fine, because I have you where I want you, Tifa honey, and I have this" she pulled out an orb of grey materia like it was her favourite toy. No one, not even Yuffie had seen such a thing before, and they all regarded the object with a mixture of apprehension and curiosity.

"Tifa" Gray said, no longer cheerful. Now her voice was dripping with utter contempt. "I couldn't believe that one woman…sorry, that one _girl _could be so well loved by everyone. But I don't envy you at all, sweetheart" she smiled spitefully, a smile that said '_Looks like I'm on the winning side now, sweetie'_

Tifa's eyes never left the little grey orb, which was still resting in Gray's cupped hands, a tiny, still little ball. She pretended not to hear, although her insides were filling with boiling, acidic, nauseous hatred and anger.

Gray gave her another spiteful but oddly alluring smile "You know, Yuffie" she said, turning to the smaller, more frightened of the two women "I know you like collecting Materia, don't you?"

Yuffie was suddenly very conscious of the orbs she had stuffed in her pockets and bra "How do you know my name?" she gulped noisily, crossing her arms over her chest in embarrassment.

Gray didn't answer her "Remember Lameious, sweetie?" she asked with a grin "Remember? You and your redhead boyfriend had a *_whaaaale*_ of a time with that fucker, didn't you?"

"How do you know about that?" Yuffie asked, her voice quivering with something approaching fear. Normally, she'd have stuck her finger up and set her straight on the Reno/boyfriend issue, but right now, for the umpteenth time, a glut of fear was creeping into Yuffie's throat.

"Because…I created Lameious" Gray grinned widely, relishing the fear she'd created.  

"Shit…" Yuffie said gutturally, unable to disguise the utter terror in her voice. 

"I'm Loki Gray" Gray growled, "I created the Goddess. _I created the fucking Goddess!_" her last sentence was little more than a prolonged shriek. And then Gray suddenly went calm.

"Korei" she said, her voice full of sweet darkness.

And she was there. Just …there. There was no plausible explanation for it, but Korei was there, living and breathing. Quiet, still, almost in a trance. Or a daze. Korei's green eyes bulged ominously, hidden by strands of faded auburn. Her coffee-coloured skin suddenly paled dramatically, turned grey, as if she had seen a ghost. Her hands suddenly crept up to her shoulders and disappeared down her back, stopping at her shoulder blades. She uttered a small cry and a cold sweat broke out across her brow. 

First of all, everyone thought Vincent had cast some spell from his new station in the darkened corner of the room and thus stunned her, because then Korei collapsed to her knees and uttered a shrill, childlike cry of pain, supporting her weight on her straining hands and knees. She shook gently. She appeared to be having a mild seizure.

"The fuck?" Rude, still cradling the injured Elena.

"The Goddess" hissed Gray in delight.

 Rude pulled down his glasses with one hand and peered at the weird sight before him.

As he did, two symmetrical lumps appeared on Korei's back, just adjacent to her jutting shoulder blades, with a wet popping noise. Yuffie stopped breathing for a second, regarding these tumour-like growths with disgust. She turned to Tifa with a worried _'what-the-HELL?'_ expression.

The odd-shaped lumps grew a little, bulging grotesquely, swelling rapidly across her back until they were bulging out of her tight-fitting top. It was like watching plants growing in fast-forward, only this time the 'plants' were odd lumps that seemed to be growing inside the young woman before them.

Korei made a series of pained whimpers through her gritted teeth, grinding her knuckles into the dusty concrete as if to draw the pain away from the tumour-like growths. She cried out and peered up helplessly at the horrified Yuffie, watery eyes pleading. She cried out again, suppressing it behind the wall of her gritted teeth, a cry that was plaintive and begged for help. 

Rude stared at the lumps in horror. "What's happening to her…?" he asked in a voice of horrified awe.

Nobody answered. Their eyes, lilac, brown, gold, blue, were all fixed on the bulging lumps. They pulsated erratically, like a hamster caught in a garden hose, only with more 'Urgh' factor.

"What the hell did you do, Gray?" Yuffie asked, now genuinely concerned. She tiptoed tentatively towards the quivering lump of crouched-up Korei on the floor and stretched an arm out to the lumps. Her fingertips brushed lightly against the pulsing protuberances.

With a mighty scream and a vile ripping sound, Korei suddenly leapt up, arching backwards slightly, fists clenched, jaw set, eyes squeezed shut, arms shaking uncontrollably. She looked like she was a marionette, being pulled around by a drug-induced puppeteer. As she stood, a small white growth appeared from her left side with a yelp and a rip, then her right. Like deformed, bleached arms they hung dripping for a second before, with another almighty scream and a stomach-turning puff of blood and white scraps, they emerged fully. The white stumps hung wetly, no longer stumps but big, gore-streaked, feathered triangles. As Korei stood, breathing heavily and sweating coldly with the relief and exhaustion, the triangles took on a life of their own and spread. They were wings. Two dove-like, if blood-streaked wings. And they had ripped their way out of Korei's back.

"Shit," Rude said bluntly, staring at the slowly stretching wings in open-mouthed disbelief. The wings fluttered, sending a small burst of white plumage a little way. He instinctively pulled Elena closer, his huge, callused hand pressing into her soft hair. She murmured something, pressing her face into his chest.

Korei straightened up and flexed her wings experimentally, as if she had just fallen and was testing a limb for injuries, slowly and deliberately.

"What kind of crazy stunt are you pullin'?" Yuffie asked, fear edging her voice.

Gray chuckled. She beckoned Korei into the air. The young woman obliged obediently. She propelled herself up into the air with one powerful, noisy flap of her massive wings. She looked like an angel in an old painting, except there was nothing angelic about Korei Brynne. She wouldn't be using those wings to fly alongside her fellow cherubim and seraphim. 

"Told you she was a Goddess" Gray said rationally, as if discussing a perfectly normal topic. "And I created her. I made her what she is."  
"Did you make them come out on purpose?" Yuffie asked warily.

Gray cackled. "'Make them come out?'" she ridiculed, mimicking the exact tone of Yuffie's quavering voice. "The word for that, my poor, misguided child, is _grow_. She _grew_ these wings. She is Goddess Korei Brynne. I am her creator, her…her master" she relished the word, grinning all the while "And you" she made 'you' sound like 'pondscum' "You are just…you. You can't stop us. You can stall us, but that would only be delaying the inevitable"

"You're just a poor man's Hojo" Vincent challenged, unbothered by the presence of a vengeful demi-goddess and her twisted creator. "You can never match his power. Impressive your creation may be, but at heart you're just like us. Painfully, pathetically human"

"And you'd know all about being human, wouldn't you Valentine?" Gray sneered.

"I'd know more than you" Vincent answered curtly.

Almost immediately, he was enveloped in a big, noisily fizzing bubble of oily black, which shrunk to a dramatically small size with a sound like a zip being pulled down, then expanded until it almost swallowed him up, making a liquidy humming sound that made their eyes water. It was the kind of sound that sent a fierce shiver down your spine, set your teeth on edge, and sometimes made you feel physically sick. Then Vincent reappeared, flat on the floor, hair askew but not visibly injured.

"No match for Sephiroth" he muttered, doggedly getting to his feet.

"Vinny!" Yuffie yelled, but she was too late. Korei warbled a high, tuneful note and Vincent flew backwards into the wall with a hard thud, as if someone of immense strength had pushed him. The air rushed out of his lungs with a wordless exclamation and he fell to the floor, eyes tightly shut, face twisted into a strange grimace that neither suited nor flattered him. His cape spread out behind him, eerily reminiscent of a puddle of blood.

'_The girl must have power if she can silence Vincent'_ Tifa thought.

"You don't know when to shut up, do you?" Yuffie scolded loudly. 

Tifa turned to Gray. Inside her, fear and anger fought for dominance. She stood for a short moment, thinking horrible curses. But it wasn't quite right thinking curses in a situation that demanded action, so she gave up on that and continued staring.

"You think that just 'cause you can hurt people, that makes you some special little madam" Tifa said, her fury slicing through her forced calm façade "But we beat the shit out of Sephiroth…and we can do the same to you, bitch"  

The same black sphere began to envelope Tifa, seemingly in slow motion. She steeled herself against the constricting feeling and the painful pressure. It began to expand at a painfully slow pace.

"Is that all she can do?" Tifa yelled, over the liquidy hum of the expanding sphere. She didn't attempt to step out. If she had attempted, she would have quickly found that she couldn't, but her pride was at stake. "Come on…give it all you got!"

"Stop it, Tifa!" Yuffie called, reaching out into the black nothingness for her. She withdrew quickly; it felt like the blackness was tearing her arms away.

"FUCKING WHORE!!!!" she yelled, her harsh tone of voice muffled by the excruciating warble of the black sphere. "Fucking…bitch" her voice trailed away as her face was swallowed up by the nothingness. Yuffie shook her arms as if they stung. Once again, she reached into the blackness, plunging both arms in and finally, after a small but tiring struggle with both the blackness and her own fear, pulled Tifa free. She and Tifa fell back. The tall brunette was barely conscious. Whatever the orb was, Korei had obviously cast it to kill her. 

The girl, no longer a girl but a twisted creation completely at the beck and call of her master, smiled lovingly at Reno, who was no longer indulged in his own hysteria but staring with raw red eyes at the sight before him. Then she beat her wings viciously, once, twice, like a swan taking off. The blackness smudged a little, like paint in water, and Tifa stirred.

"I have to say, it was fun," Gray said, feigning nostalgia. "And you're all so much stronger than I expected. But let me advise you: Don't follow. This is almost over"

"What…?" Yuffie began, but the noisy whine of the black orb, now gradually fading into a dusky purple, cut her off. Gray waved. "Ta-ta" she said affectionately. Then she stepped into the orb, followed closely by Korei. Like heat rising off a hot tarmac road, the orb evaporated, taking Gray and her grotesquely beautiful creation with it.

"A poor copy" Vincent muttered, shaking his buzzing head

_I hate action chapters. They are so difficult for me to write. I hope this one was bearable!_

_More people I want to thank: Chuu, hunnybbg, Clara, Moggy, Hika-Chan, sWeETLuvLygUrl (I promise to speed up the romance for ya!) and once again Sabacat, Scarr, Reese and the wonderful Asuka! Thank you all so much for taking the time to read and review this! _^_^ 

_Reviews, comments, poetry/art requests to TioRankP@hotmail.com_

_Roll on Chapter 18-'Realisation'_

_TIO _^_^_  Wednesday, 12 June 2002___


	18. Chapter 18-Realisation

Chapter 18-Realisation

****

_'You really give a fuck?'_

_Reno Lozano_

****

_'I'm always excusing myself, _

_But now it's getting hard to tell,_

_The reason why I even care,_

_Increasingly I'm unaware,_

_Instead of bettering myself,_

_I'm crawling deeper in my shell,_

_The whole point that I'm alive_

_Seems to escape me at this time'_

_"Too Much Nothing"_

_Mushroomhead_

It was Yuffie who broke the silence.

"Reno"

The tall redhead turned, surprised to hear a voice other than his own mental one. He was even more surprised to hear Yuffie's.

"Mm-hmm?" he answered, blinking slowly and deliberately. A few clumps of fiery red hair fell across his eyes and he made no attempt to brush them away. 

Yuffie's heart went out to him. The man facing her wasn't the lively, vivacious Reno she knew. He was a husk, the mere shell of what Reno used to be. His face was downcast, eyes dull and lifeless. His shoulders were hunched, although thanks to a combination of Cure 3 spells and potions, his injuries were just about healed. In fact, his whole frame was slouched over. He was a tired, worn, empty effigy of the man Yuffie knew and…

*Loved* 

….liked. 

_*Don't lie to yourself, Yuffie. You love him. You know it's foolish, perhaps that's why you're denying it* _

Yuffie cut off her own train of thoughts, shaking her head and turning away from his cold, empty gaze. She turned her attention instead to Elena. The petite blonde was barely conscious…a mixture of shock and concussion had seen to that…but in spite of this, her dark eyes were wide open and loosely focusing on the world around her, the dim, blinking lights, peeling walls and metallic smell of blood, the concerned cooing and muttering from the group gathered around her. She could feel blood, cold liquid dribbling steadily from the slash wound in her arm, numbed and anaesthetized through pure shock, and the presence of somebody beside her, somebody supporting her limp body, somebody holding her together. She didn't know who, but the smell of cotton and some sort of shower gel was familiar. 

The bullet hadn't directly penetrated, but had scored deep through her upper arm, tearing away a sizeable chunk of flesh and fabric and dislodging her from her post. 

Rest assured, Elena would not be whining about her jacket when she came to.

"Is she okay?" Yuffie asked, rubbing the bruise on her arm. She could feel another bruise forming on her leg, the result of her rapid dismount earlier, but ignored it.

"She'll be fine" Rude assured, his fingers moving clumsily across her soft hair. He was eternally grateful for the fact that Elena wasn't conscious enough to take any real notice of his clumsy, maladroit display of affection. He knew she wouldn't like it…but at the same time he felt so compelled to just hold her and make sure she was okay.

Reno would have understood.

"Thanks for coming after me" Tifa's voice was loud and abrasive in the enveloping quiet, despite the fact that her tone was hushed. She looked again to her wrists, where the ropes had burned and cut their way into her skin, leaving shallow but wide cuts. They still ached, but the ache was muted now. Muted and bearable, especially in the wake of Elena's injury. It seemed that her spell in that odd black orb had numbed her senses…both a curse and a blessing. She looked up, examining the gushing wound with an amalgam of horror and pity.

There was no response. Rude held Elena, concentrating all his energy and focus on her. Vincent and Nanaki stared blankly at the scene, seemingly absorbed in Elena and her injury. Yuffie stared too, her wide lilac eyes fixed on Elena's barely moving body, but as Tifa watched it was clear that her real attention was reserved for Reno, who was staring at the floor morosely. The reason for his sorrow and anger was still present in the room with them…she too stared at the floor, refusing to meet any of the accusing, angry gazes she was periodically receiving. Tifa felt a stab of pity for her. She seemed genuinely sorry for hurting Reno…but he wouldn't accept it. His stubbornness was obstructing any chance of forgiveness. 

"Reno" she called softly.

He peered up, snapping out of his reverie. He blinked long and slow as if he'd just woken up and shoved his hands in his pockets, slouching over again. "Hmm?" he answered wordlessly.

"Why don't you sit down? You look all in"

Reno paused blankly, as if taking this in. Then he nodded, sliding back against the wall and slipping down quietly, drawing up his knees as he slid. He shelved his knees with his slim arms and rested his chin on them, pillowed by the layer of thin blue cotton. He then continued staring aimlessly into space, considering.

Tifa turned to Yuffie, who was peering at her with a sort of nervous reverence. Few people commanded Reno and were complied with.

"Talk to him" she mouthed.

The little ninja raised her eyebrows, regarding Tifa as if she had just suggested that she kick him in the face. Taking a deep breath, she blinked long and slow, taking a few steps towards the redhead crumpled up against the dusty, peeling plaster of the immense indoor junkyard.

Yuffie looked at him from a few steps away, looking straight into his face. He stared uncomprehendingly at the floor, disturbingly soulless eyes locked on the dusty expanse of bloodstained concrete, knees drawn up to his chest like a scared child.

"Mind if I sit with you?" her voice was croaky and unintentionally loud. She bit her tongue as self-punishment for her lack of subtlety, but watched with interest as Reno's lacklustre eyes scanned her up, down, up again. He nodded. "Okay" he said, his low voice rumbling in his throat. He shifted to the side a little as if allowing her space, although there was a seemingly endless supply of this particular commodity.

She complied, settling herself next to him. She felt the slightly baggy waistband of Elena's blue jeans slip down her slender hips, and she quickly tugged them back up, feeling her cheeks heat a little. She scolded herself again. Reno was upset. Why would he care about seeing her underwear?

"My baby's alive, then" he said, almost conversationally, although his distracted gaze never left the invisible spot in the distance on which they were seemingly focused. 

"I didn't know about her," Yuffie said quietly. Her tone was apologetic "I'm very sorry"

"No need" Reno sighed. "You don't need to know" 

There was a moment of silence, occasionally disturbed by the mutterings and murmurings of the group gathered around the injured Elena.

"I'd like to know" Yuffie ventured softly.

Reno turned, and Yuffie felt a small stab of fear. His eyes, formerly empty and soulless, were now swimming in a sea of hurt. Hurt that her stupidity and tactlessness had no doubt inspired. She swallowed hard, waiting for his expression to change, waiting for him to grin, to make a lewd comment about the materia stuffed down her bra. He didn't. His eyes burned into hers with fearful ferocity, and Yuffie wished she could relish the strange breed of intimacy the situation had established. But how could she when he was looking at her in such a plaintive, melancholic manner? How could she enjoy the closeness and conspiracy when his whole world was crashing around him?

"You really give a fuck?" he seemed surprised with Yuffie's request.

"Of course I do" was Yuffie's painfully honest answer, "Reno…if it hurts that badly, don't tell me"

"No…I want to" Reno told her, shaking his head.   
Yuffie's face refocused to his eyes and she sighed, watching as his braid slipped from its precarious perch on his slender shoulder to down across his chest. She reached out on impulse, flicking it back in place.

He offered her a quizzical look.

"Sorry" she apologised sincerely "I didn't mean to fuss" she removed her hand promptly, looking at it in disdain, cursing it for moving independently of her conscious mind.

"No problem" Reno answered gently, thin lips curling into the slightest, most phantasmal of smiles.

Yuffie's own expression warmed. His smile was a catalyst for her own relaxation…she now knew that he wasn't angry. Pretty lilac eyes glittered into his, illuminated by the conflicting lights of the sickly sodium lamps and the pitifully weak streams of watery light pouring from the windows. 

"I won't go into detail, though…" Reno stopped, casting a glance at Yuffie's elfin visage "Too much shit. You don't need to know it all"

"No" Yuffie agreed quietly.

Reno sighed "I've...I've completely lost the plot, haven't I?" He leaned his head back against the wall, loose locks of flame red hair sticking up against the deathly white plaster as he gave himself up to Yuffie's questions. His face was drawn and corrupted with sorrow…Yuffie had never seen such grief expressed in human eyes…well, maybe once before. The day the aristocracy of Wutai said goodbye to their proud, beautiful Empress, Minh-Nhi Kisaragi. Wife of Godo Kisaragi…mother of Yuffie Kisaragi. Full of spirit, energy and above all, hope. All of which had died with her. That day the coffin was lowered into the ground under the watchful gaze of Dao-Chao. Yuffie had watched her father, had followed the tears that rained from his dark, depthless eyes, soaking into the black material of his suit. It was frightening, watching her mother being placed into the ground, beneath the knowing eyes of Dao-Chao and the weeping ones of her father. Dao-Chao…all-seeing, all-knowing, omnipresent. Everyone had cried, struck by grief. Dao-Chao had merely smiled knowingly, smirking down at Yuffie with smug wisdom. Dao-Chao knew everything…    
"Why?" Yuffie shook her head of the thoughts that were threatening to hurt her. She, like Reno, didn't like recalling the past. It hurt her. Judging by the mist gathering in Reno's aqueous blue eyes, it hurt him too.

"Why dwell on what's been?" he murmured quietly, lost in his sombre, sullen musings. "My daughter is alive. She doesn't know me, Yuffie. She doesn't even know I exist. Why worry about what's been when what's happening now is so much more fucked up?" a hot tear of frustration, anger, sorrow…of myriad emotions, trickled down his pale cheek, running past the bleached scars that marred his striking face and marked just how hurtful his life had been up till this point. And the tear that slipped silently past them helped testify that. 

"Reno…?"Yuffie squeaked helplessly, nervy at watching her pillar of strength fall apart before her eyes. Reno always stood tall, always had a smart remark, a cynical comment, a wise, if inelegant adage.  
He turned then, seeing her worried face through a mist of hot, stinging water. Turquoise eyes glistened crystalline and pale, thin lips pressed together, melding into a single, rose-petal line. Yuffie always managed to bring light to the worst of situations in her own childish way; keeping everyone busy and casting her own brand of light-heartedness on the otherwise serious bunch that AVALANCHE were. To see her so worried, artlessly lovely face contorted in concern, even through the blurry mist of his tears…it was oddly gratifying. For some weird, fucked-up reason, she was worried about him…so much so that her hands were reaching out, small, slender limbs extending towards him, and…whoa…what was this? Her small, delicate hands closed around his own, enveloping them in their warmth and soothing frayed nerves with their gentleness. Her timid grip tightened a little, the light tan of her skin contrasting deliciously with the dove white of his own. Running on autopilot, he allowed his callused, thin fingers to weave between hers, absorbing the warmth and gratification her touch conveyed. 

"Please stop crying," she pleaded, her voice full of shaky, childish innocence, and it suddenly became apparent that his tears were disturbing her in some way. He was usually strong, brushed off any setback or insult with a nonchalance that inspired admiration from his cohorts and strangers alike. To see him finally buckle like this must be rather unusual…and Yuffie, he guessed, needed some sort of continuity in her strange, almost nomadic life.

"That Jo…a long time ago, longer than I care to remember…she basically saved my life" the long, thin fingers of his free hand snaked up to meet the long blanched furrows scored into his face "If it hadn't been for her, I wouldn't be here now" a short, bitter noise that Yuffie guessed was supposed to be a laugh "A mixed blessing, huh?"

"A blessing in any case," the little ninja said wisely, barely pausing between words "Continue"

He did. "I s'pose you can guess the mechanics behind it all…in the end, she moved in with me. I was about sixteen or seventeen, she was eighteen. We were living in the dead centre of the Midgar slums, so it's not like we had much money or many opportunities. And then, after a year or so, she decided she was bored with the life we were leading" his gaze dropped from her worriedly wide eyes to the dust on the floor, watching the lumps of fluff, dust and other debris roll along like tumbleweed. "I can't honestly say that I blame her for it, either. But…what I can blame her for…and what I do blame her for…is when she left…she told me that she was pregnant. And then she disappeared. She didn't even tell me what she'd done with the baby…whether she'd kept it, killed it, given it away…I heard she got rid of it"

He swallowed hard, fighting back a fresh deluge of hot tears "I guess I heard wrong, huh?"

Yuffie began to stroke his wounded knuckles with her thumb, the softness of her skin completely contrary to the rough, uneven scar tissue that buffered the protruding joints.

"That's it, really" Reno said bitterly, blinking fiercely. His azure eyes were still brimming with tears "The kid doesn't even know I exist. She's probably got a new daddy somewhere. Why would she give a fuck about me?" 

"But…she might…" Yuffie protested weakly, unconsciously shifting up onto her knees so she was on Reno's level. A naively earnest expression prettified her face further, and Reno felt like smiling. He refrained. "You don't know! Maybe…maybe…"

"Maybe there's no point in talking about it anymore" Reno sighed, offering her the same tight-lipped smile. "I'm sorry I upset you, Yuffie. I'll be fine, honestly. I've been through worse"

"But you don't know!" Yuffie continued, "Maybe, just maybe, there's a chance…"

"Maybe so…but I really don't think so. And I don't want to discuss it anymore. This is the wrong place, the wrong situation…"

Yuffie opened her mouth to protest again, but Reno countered her with an almost fierce reply "Yuffie, will you please just drop it?" he said snappily, eyes widening in exasperation.

Yuffie's mouth snapped shut.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore, okay?" Reno said finally, turning his head away. Despite the adamant snappiness of his reply and the apparent coldness of his demeanour, he couldn't bear to see the look of abject hurt his slightly cruel words had created. 

_'I was much too hard on her' _Reno told himself, feeling a pang of regret sear through him as Yuffie untangled her fingers from his in a moment of angry upset_._ '_This may well be my own personal tragedy...but Yuffie's been through shit too. She doesn't want to tell me about it, but she doesn't go snapping at me when I try to help'_ Reno wasn't sure why he kept pushing the ninja so far away every time it seemed that they were getting closer. Back in the cave…on the beach…and now…well...maybe he did know why. They were getting closer…that was obvious for anyone to see. After all, Reno now referred to her by her real name as opposed to 'brat', 'kid' and 'pest'…but in all seriousness…if Reno didn't care about her…then why on earth was he sitting here reprimanding himself for hurting her? As he watched her get to her feet, shuffle over to Tifa and the rest of the group (not without casting a longing, somewhat rueful glance back at the redhead) Reno felt another pang of regret spear him right in the gut. Reno regretted very little, he very rarely felt any remorse for the consequences of his actions, even when his actions led to the hurt of others. But now…it was all because he was giving in to her, letting something grow and flourish between them, blossoming into something potentially beautiful…He'd let that happen twice before…and he hadn't stopped punishing himself for the death of both blooms. He hadn't stopped suffering from the after effects, from the gaping wounds left behind. 

He was afraid of allowing that to happen again.

_'So, would you prefer to grow into a shrivelled, miserable old man?'_ his subconscious questioned him, _'Do you want to die alone? Do you enjoy the acid you swallow ever time you hurt her? Of course you don't. Why can't you accept that, maybe, this time it's for real? Why can't you accept…'_

"Reno!" 

Tifa's stern bark snapped the glowering redhead from his daydream. He caught the shortest glimpse of her angry expression as she turned away.

He also noticed a long line of needle scars down her arm, marching down, along her elbow. They looked like I.V scars…Reno had had ample experience with intravenous tubes…after all, he'd watched coldly as hundreds of physically inadequate SOLDIER dropouts had been, through the power of intravenous Mako transfusions and the injection of Jenova cells, turned from normal young men and women into weird, grotesque beasts. It hadn't bothered him at the time, but now, seeing the needle scars running down her arms and back, he suddenly began to worry. Sure, Tifa wasn't his favourite person…she was a fine piece of meat, but that was about the extent of it…but he didn't really want to see the feisty young woman turned slowly into a drooling, slobbering beast. One thin eyebrow arched in question, but he didn't voice his queries. Instead, he pushed himself to his feet, feeling heavier and achier than he had before his ill-fated meeting with Josephyne, and moved over to join the group.

"We've decided to split up into smaller groups," Tifa informedthe newly arrived redhead coldly, her hand travelling to the long line of lumps that stung her back. The presence of these swellings disturbed her a little, but she decided not to worry about them. "Rude, Elena, Jo and Nanaki are to stay here. Vincent and myself will search the west side of the compound, while Yuffie and yourself are to search the east. Got that?"

Reno cast a short glance at Yuffie, who refused to meet his gaze, peering away whenever his azure eyes met hers. "Yeah, I got it" he replied, every bit as cold. "But I can't understand why you're trusting that…that…" he trailed off, pointing loosely at Jo. She recoiled. He couldn't even find a word to insult her with. To him, she was worth only a lethargic gesture. That was painful. She slumped a little. 

"Because she has nowhere else to go" Tifa answered curtly, casting a disapproving, maternal glance at the angered Turk "I'm sure you've been in such a position before"

"I have" Reno countered sharply, waving his finger at Jo as he talked "And at the time I was an innocent little brat who knew fuck-all about the world. But she…" once again, his nose wrinkled and he uttered his words with an air of disgust "_*she's* _not innocent, not anymore"

Tifa opened her mouth to retaliate, but a sharp glare from Yuffie told her that this was unwise. Instead, she assumed a businesslike tone. "Well," she continued, her tone so much like Cloud's that, for a moment, Yuffie had to kick herself as a reminder that Cloud wasn't in the room with them. "I know you and Yuffie work efficiently together, so I have the highest expectations of you both. Take the door on the east side of this room and search that way. If you find anyone, bring them straight back here. Understood?"

Reno regarded her in the same manner he had Jo; nose wrinkled, eyes hooded, eyebrows meeting in the middle, upper lip curled slightly. He looked like he'd just stepped in dogshit. "Tifa, you ought to stop acting like Cloud. It really doesn't suit you"

"Oh?" Tifa seemed hurt; her authority had been challenged "And why's that?"

Reno paused. Then, turning his back on the chesty brunette, he finally delivered his answer as he left.

"I guess you're not so retarded"

With a small, forced smile, Yuffie followed him.

_A pointlessly angsty chapter, but hey, why the hell not, I've just written an action chapter so I think I have the right to take it easy! No, I'm kidding, I'm still working hard. The reviews I've been getting are really getting me off my arse and making me work! I never realised reviews were so motivating. Brain food, I tell ya! Well I hope this chapter was okay, why don't you drop me a lovely review and tell me what you thought?_

_Next chapter will move a little more quickly, with more action and more Reffieness for everyone craving it!_

_Reviews, art/poetry requests to TioRankP@hotmail.com or visit my rather rubbish Chocobo Square website at: www.geocities.com/tiorankp/tiosquare.html _

_Okay…thank you all for reading!_

TIO ^_^

Roll On Chapter 19-'Secrets Of A Materia Hunter'


	19. Chapter 19-Who Could Ever Learn...?

Chapter 19-Who Could Ever Learn…? 'Sometimes silence is the most appropriate remedy' 

_Vincent Valentine_

_'You ask me how I feel, I say ok_

_More or less, less than more_

_Asking makes you see like you care_

_(I don't think you care)'  
  
_

_"Helpless"_

_Flowerpot Heroes_

The young ninja wasn't entirely sure why she hadn't argued against Tifa's decision, but neither was she motivated to argue now. Creeping along the corridor and keeping close to Reno's heels, she breathed shallowly and tiptoed delicately, suddenly afraid of the murky darkness that lurked like a bad smell behind every corner. 

Reno was less bothered by this, stomping along the corridor as if taking his frustration out on the dusty concrete underfoot. Nightstick hanging from his hand in a casual yet expert gesture, the Turk kept one hand on the wall as he crept along, assassin-like in the gloom. Long fingers left thin, zigzagging trails of clean blue paint in the thick dust coat that served as a sort of wallpaper. In fact, the only thing that broke Yuffie's mental image of an assassin was the loud whap-whap-whap of his feet slapping loudly against the floor, too loud to be an entirely accidental occurrence. His thin ponytail bounced off his shoulder with every step. On occasion a wayward ray of light would catch a few strands of hot copper hair and set them aflame for a second, the result a rudimentary flare. But the flame would be extinguished after a few seconds, plunging them back into squalid, breathless darkness. Darkness that, after Vincent's prophecy and Gray's little display, Yuffie was increasingly fearful of.

"Slow down!" Yuffie hissed, trying her hardest to disguise the irrational fear that was beginning to eat at her. A ninja? Scared of the dark? What a ridiculous concept. Lord Godo would have died if he heard such a thing. With thoughts of her father playing on her conscience, Yuffie tried to shake off the feeling of being watched, the feeling that the walls were closing in on her, but it clung with the tenacity of a particularly vicious pit bull. No matter how hard she tried to dispel it, her fears wouldn't quite leave her.  

Reno slowed with neither complaint nor grudge. Tightening his grip on the nightstick, he suddenly stopped, turned to face her. Azure eyes stood out like beacons in the filthy darkness. His fairly deep voice echoed down the long, endless corridor, the only sound Yuffie could hear over the drumming of her own heart.   

"You scared or something?"

A direct challenge. Yuffie drew herself up to her full height of five-foot-three (which was really nothing compared to Reno's five-foot-ten or so of lean muscle and scarred flesh) and, with what she hoped was an indignant glare, said in a lamentably quivery tone "No way!"

_'Great' _she scolded herself. _'Just how shaky was your voice there? You could've added colour and called it friggin' jelly, that's how. Calm down. Ninjas aren't supposed to be afraid of the damn dark'_

Reno's eyebrow twitched and his stony expression gave way to a grin. His whole face seemed to melt, softening and creasing to accommodate the smile. Thin lips curved upwards, pushing up scarred cheeks and lighting up tired eyes as they spread into a typically Reno grin. All at once the angry, reproachful young man of five minutes ago had become the cheeky, flirty, carefree man of a few days ago. Yuffie would have been disquieted if she hadn't known him so well.

"C'mon Yuf, you seem to forget…back at the crater?" his expression was knowing and wise despite the underlying mischief "I know when you're afraid"

"I'm not!" she insisted indignantly, voice steadier now.

"There's no shame in being afraid, Yuffie" Reno told her sagely, grin softening into a gentle smile "Especially when you've just witnessed the birth of a vengeful Goddess"

_'There's no shame in being afraid, Yuffie' _His words echoed through her mind like a weird mantra. How un-Reno. Usually, he'd make a libellous comment, say something rude and abrasive. Reno thrived on insulting people, lapped up the indignant responses, fed from the looks to kill. Especially when Yuffie was involved. Her responses were usually so childishly angry, so irresistibly stupid. But his words just then had been…dare she say it…_sweet…_

Yuffie offered him a quizzical look "Gawd Reno, that's very unlike you. You sick?"

Reno shook his head, amused. "Something like that" he agreed, flicking his ponytail aside and baring the chillingly appropriate idiom emblazoned in bold black across his t-shirt. "What I mean is…there's no need to worry. If worst comes to worst, you know I'll cover your ass" a mischievous glint appeared in his eye as he spoke, and Yuffie could see that the last phrase was just one of Reno's typical double-entendres.

"Is that a threat or a promise?" There. Yuffie slapped herself mentally. She hadn't meant to say it…neither had she meant to accompany it with a flirtatious grin. It was unlike her to say anything even remotely sexual. It was even more unlike her to respond to Reno's flirting. She waited for him to sober up, to get all solemn and scold her, telling her that now wasn't the time for her silly little girl games.

What she didn't expect was the look of surprise…then the red creeping slowly up his cheeks, blooming like a flower across his face. A flirtatious grin flickered, floundered, died, replaced quickly by a contemplative look (although a hint of the grin remained, playing at the corners of his thin lips) 

"When we get out of here, I'll let you know" he told her, and it seemed that for a moment Reno was being…*shock* *horror*…_serious. _Yuffie didn't know whether this was good or bad, whether this was an omen, a turning point in their relationship.

In all honesty…it frightened her a little bit. This was Reno. Reno was not exactly happily-ever-after husband material. Reno was an alcoholic, nicotine-addicted, violent-tempered womaniser.

Reno was all of those things…but he also needed someone…almost as much as Yuffie did.

Yuffie gazed uncomprehendingly at her male cohort, unsure whether to say something or do something. Her foot drew a series of abstract patterns in the dust on the floor. He too was looking directly at her, not awaiting a reply but apparently contemplating something.

_'Is this right?' _he asked himself, watching Yuffie shuffle her feet seemingly in awkwardness. _'Does she want this? I do…but does she? Is she ready? She's so young…is she ready?' _

Yuffie's lilac eyes locked onto his for the briefest of moments before the pretty young ninja broke away, olive skin gaining a pink tinge as she blushed, undisguised. Reno felt that peculiar fluttering in his chest, like someone had let a whole bevy of winged creatures loose in his stomach. A feeling he'd often encountered when gazing at Aeris all those years ago, or…dare say it…at Jo. Oh, he wanted it alright. He'd taken one last stand against his feelings…and lost. 

Now the only thing standing in his way was the uncertainty surrounding her feelings.

"Yuffie?" he ventured.

"Come on" she responded quickly, dully "We've got a job to do, right?"

With a small, unintentional frown, Reno nodded and turned his back on the ninja.

Vincent, meanwhile, was taking a stand against his own feelings.

A different breed of feelings, perhaps, but difficult all the same.

_'How must it feel to know that you've created a monster?' _he asked himself, staring impassively at Elena, who still bled and breathed independently of her unconscious mind. _'I wonder if that Gray shares the sense of elation that I know Hojo felt when his son was conceived' _

His human hand travelled across to his right bicep, to the place where mortal flesh became cold steel. One hack was all it had taken. Severed flesh had been joined to prosthetic arm. And not even a decent prosthetic. A cruel, rudimentary claw fashioned out of twisted steel and odd bolts. All of a sudden he felt abysmally inhuman. Was the heart beating rhythmlessly in his chest even his own? Or did it belong to some mangled beast rotting in some oversized pickle jar as part of Hojo's grotesque legacy? Parts of him were so ugly and bizarre that he knew they could not be his own…the muscles in his shooting arm were far too strong to be anything but transplanted…it was like having an armful of wires, all strung slackly to cope with any sort of weight or recoil. Anyone else would be impressed, perhaps even pleased with this particular prosthetic. Vincent detested it. How could anyone learn to love something so grossly inhuman? 

Much like himself. He inspired fear and loathing into the hearts of most people who saw him…unearthly scarlet eyes that burrowed into the very soul were enough to make even the most intrepid of people shrink away and hide. Where others would relish this, Vincent wished he could just be normal again. He wished he could look people in the eye and not have them shrink away, fearful of whatever it was that lurked like a demon in the depths of his blood red eyes. 

The demon, he knew, was there for as long as he had this cursed body. It had no real name…christened 'Chaos' by its host, it would spontaneously possess him at times of immense anger or fear, lending him its immortal body, unlimited strength and awe-inspiring power. 'Chaos' was, admittedly a useful parasite, but a parasite all the same.

"What's the matter?"

A gentle female tone nudged Vincent out of his morbid thoughts. The young woman Reno had addressed as 'Jo' was looking up at him, straight in the eye. She wasn't afraid, merely concerned.

_'I'm sure she's seen her fair share of freaks in her time' _Vincent told himself scathingly.

"I'm fine, thank you," he told her coolly, blinking long and slow. There was not a single trace of fear in her cool blue eyes, just genuine upset at the events of earlier. "Sometimes silence is the most appropriate remedy"

"Mm" she nodded, looking back at Elena "I'm very sorry, you know, about Gray and all that"

"Too late now" Vincent interrupted coldly. She was still gazing, fascinated, into his eyes. He was both surprised and vaguely horrified. Surprised because she was still seemingly unafraid of him, even after prolonged exposure to his eyes and the demon within. Horrified because the warmth this realisation brought about was, for once, far from unpleasant. Something long dead had suddenly stirred in him, something buried and left to rot with the death of Lucrecia. 

Vincent was the first one to look away. He never had to look away…he didn't register fear as a valid emotion. To Vincent, fear was one of those things he'd left behind in his transformation from human to beast along with various other human emotions. Emotions woven and spun into a discarded chrysalis that, much as he'd have liked to, Vincent couldn't bring with him. What purpose would such emotions serve? What was there to be fearful of? Whenever he was in real danger Chaos would take control, and damage dealt would mostly affect the demon. What purpose could love and humility serve? Who could ever learn to love a beast?

Nanaki would have understood. 

"Vincent" Tifa called from her post by the western exit "Come on, we better get going"

"Certainly" Vincent answered. Dimly aware that Jo's eyes were still on him, he shook his head, clearing his thoughts so he could focus appropriately on what was to come.

'After all…who could ever learn to love a beast?' 

Reno's thoughts at that moment were an uncanny echo of the dark gunslinger. He slipped down the dark corridor slowly, quietly now, trailed by a considerably less enthusiastic Yuffie. His thoughts at that time were as dark and despondent as the darkness and silence that surrounded them like some stagnant aura.

Who could learn to love a beast like himself? Jo had been young and foolish, Aeris had died for such a mistake. So why would Yuffie consider following in her footsteps? 

She was young, but not foolish. Neither was she suicidal.

'Who could ever learn to love a beast?' 

At that moment in time, Reno wasn't sure.

_Sometimes I think short, brief chapters can be a welcome break from long, droning ones. This is my break for you guys…after all, I've been rattling of seven-eight pagers for a while, so why not a nice little three pager? This is more of a filler than anything…but it's an *important* filler...the chapter in which Reno finally admits to himself his feelings. Will Yuffie catch on? And as for Vinnie…well…let's just say I have a few ideas for him…(cackles like a mad scientist)_

_Well, thanks for reading! Comments, reviews, poetry/art requests to TioRankP@hotmail.com_

_More Gray/Tye and Cid/Cloud etc next chapter as well as a little bit of Reffieness!!!!_

_Thanks again! _

_TIO _^_^

_P.S Never heard of Flowerpot Heroes? (the band whose lyrics featured at the start of the chapter) Well seek out some of their stuff! Why? Because…I happen to be lead singer/guitarist _^_^ 


	20. Chapter 20-Welcome To Paradise

**Chapter 20-Welcome to Paradise**

'You say you've never seen this before, huh? Lucky you' 

_Reno Lozano_

_"Pay attention to the cracked streets_

And broken homes 

_Some call it the slums_

_Some call it nice_

_I want to take you through _

_A wasteland I like to call my home_

_Welcome to paradise'_

_"Welcome To Paradise"_

_Green Day_

"Aaaa…gaaaa…Doo, doo, doo, push pineapple shake-a-tree! A-ga-doo, doo, doo, push pineapple grind coffee!"

Not only was Red Mohawk Boy singing again, he was *_doing the actions*_…Cid shivered with unbridled disgust and pulled the thin pillow over his head in a vain attempt to block out his tuneless warblings. 

Abruptly, the boy stopped. Cid allowed himself to replace the pillow and offered him a curious look.

"I wonder…" R.M.B scratched his chin (which, Cid noticed, was beginning to get stubbly) and stood up, stretching. One hand travelled to the mop of red hair that flopped in an unruly mess all over his head, some of it still caked in enough gel/wax/superglue to keep it in some sort of order. He ruffled it, further adding to the chaotic mix of spine, fluff and stubble, before stretching some more, letting out an almighty yawn.

"What do you wonder?" Cid asked gruffly, watching as the tall boy stopped mid-stretch and wandered over to the door, placing a hand over the keyhole and leaning down until he was level with the tiny slot. 

Before Cid could ask what the hell he was doing, the boy yelled. Loudly. 

"Heeey! Neil Sedaka dude! You there?"

His loud, deep tones echoed down the corridor, bouncing back in shreds like some sort of jumbled answer. 

"What do you want?" a far gruffer tone, the tone of someone with a fifty-a-day habit and a throat that had just begun to mutiny returned his call.

"Come here! I wanna ask you something!"

A loud, audible sigh from 'Neil Sedaka dude'. Then the sound of booted feet clipping against the filthy concrete, getting ever louder as their owner approached. 

"What?" A catarrhy voice barked from the other side of the steel door. Cid shook his head in incredulity. The little retard had the guards (or at least 'Neil Sedaka dude') running around after him.

"Got any information on my friend? The one who was captured with me?"

'Neil Sedaka dude' let off a few rattling, liquidy coughs. "Don't mess about, Reynolds, you know I can't tell ya stuff like that. What do you really want?"

"I wanna know if Juvi's okay!" This time the boy's voice wasn't so much questioning as plaintive and almost desperate "Please, at least tell me if she's okay"

Cid looked down at him from his perch on the suspended bed. Curiosity overrode his need to sulk and he watched the unfolding scene with interest. He unconsciously reached for a cig, and slapped himself hard when he realised what he was doing. He needed to _ration_ the fags, not smoke them all up. Best wait 'till he _really _needed one.

'Neil Sedaka dude' huffed and puffed for a while, alternating between wheezing coughs and pseudo-thoughtful 'hmms'. Finally, after what seemed like an age of these sound effects, he answered.

"Okay, but listen, you never heard it from me, right?" his voice was now a gravelly whisper, hushed for fear of discovery. "I shouldn't be tellin' ya this, kid, but…ah…who's it gonna hurt? Your lady friend's been hooked up to a life support for the past night or so. I couldn't tell you why, but I hear she's quite critical"

The boy turned to Cid for a moment, a serious, almost frightened expression adorning his face. Cid had never seen such an expression on his face…usually he either displayed an infuriating grin complete with a set of absolutely _perfect _teeth (on which the old pilot had often wanted to make his dentistry debut) or an ambiguously blank stare. The latter was an expression which had had Cid wondering, on many an occasion, whether there was actually anything behind the boy's frighteningly intense blue eyes. But here he was, looking for all the world like a frightened little kid. He actually looked normal, despite the tangled mess of blood-red semi-spines laying flat on his head like the blooms of some weird cranial weed.

"Why? What happened? Is she sick? Is she hurt?" The words poured out of the worried boy's mouth like a verbal waterfall. He hardly paused between each question "Did they hurt her? Are they fucking about with her? 'Cause I swear, if they're using her for their fucking experiments I'll fucking kill them…"

"Hey, calm down kid" 'Neil Sedaka dude' soothed gruffly "And you'd better curb that language of yours, son"

"Sorry" the boy apologised, looking at the floor in genuine remorse "But why's she sick?"

"I told ya, I'm not s'posed to…"

"At least tell me why she's on life support!" the boy implored. Cid watched him closely. If 'Neil Sedaka dude' had been face-to-face with him at that moment, the grizzled old pilot knew that he'd have a hard time telling him no. The expression on his face was pure upset. Cid supposed that the boy cared quite a bit for this 'Juvi'       

There was a shuffling sound as the guard stood up, moved away from the keyhole. His catarrhy voice was more distant now, accompanied by the sound of feet getting further away.

"I can't," he said simply. His words carried behind him like a breeze as he returned to his post. Cid heard him mutter something as he sat down, marking his return with the shuffling of pages. "It's quiet. Wonder where Brody and her goddamn harmonica are today?"

_'Probably reading porn' _Cid told himself frankly.

"You okay?" he asked the boy.

The red haired kid got up, kicked the bottom of the door in a childish display of anger. Then he turned, expression stormy, eyes ready to provide the rain while his voice provided the thunder.

"Fuck no" he growled, staring up at Cid through shimmering blue eyes. "They're all a bunch of dickheads. That's what it is. They're fucking with her. I know it. Why else would she be sick? She was fine when I left her…"

"Whoa, calm down!" Cid tried to hide his amusement at the boy's tantrum "That guard guy was right. You've got a filthy mouth"

"Don't care" he replied sulkily, drawing patterns in the filth that coated the tiles underfoot with the toe of his far-too-big desert boots. Then he was silent.

Cid mused for a second, wondering how best to go about the next five minutes or so. Ignore the kid? Talk to him? Yell at him? Then it hit him. The best course of action.

He lit a cig.

"Want one?" he offered, holding out the packet. For anyone else this would be a standard show of courtesy. 

For Cid it was a genuine show of friendship.

The boy eyed him with suspicion. "Yeah, okay" he accepted warily, straightening up. Reluctantly, Cid lit the cigarette and handed it to him. He took a long draw and blew out a cloud of grey smoke, shaking his head as if to clear it.

"You're one of the weirdest people I know" Cid said by means of conversation. "One minute you're singing damn nursery rhymes, the next you're swearin' like a damn trooper. You can't be a day over seventeen, but you're still smoking that cig like a pro. You're scarily cheerful most of the time…and now you're sitting here mopin' like a wet weekend. What is it with you?"

"I can't help it" the boy replied, voice hurt and innocent. "And I'm not seventeen. I'm twenty-two"

Cid raised his eyebrows. _'Must be getting old' _he mocked himself.

"What's your name, anyway?" the boy asked, taking a second draw "I heard you was in AVALANCHE. That true?"

"Cid Highwind" Cid told him, unconsciously mimicking his long draw "And yeah, I'm in AVALANCHE. That's why I'm here. You?"

"I'm Tye Reynolds" he smiled a little, holding the thin cylinder of nicotine and paper between the forefinger and middle finger of his right hand. "I'm not really sure why I'm here. Some guy decided that me and Juvi would be perfect for a little experiment he had in mind…next thing I know, I'm here, smoking a cig with one of the guys from AVALANCHE" this time there was no mistaking it; a grin split his face in two, lighting up his bright blue eyes. "I guess every cloud has a silver lining, huh?"

Cid nodded, studying the boy's eyes. Then it hit him. Hard. What had Gray told them? _'One of our best guys was recently kidnapped by a rebel faction…kind of a pseudo-Shinra, if you will_. _They're bent on resurrecting the Cetra, despite the Sephiroth incident. The thing is, this guy isn't just an ordinary rebel. Not only is he our best, he already has Ancient blood in him. Not enough to give him powers or anything, but enough to make a difference. He's kind of…a rejected experiment, if you like, one of Shinra's early failures, completely oblivious to his past_'

Of course, he wasn't one of their 'best guys'. That was bollocks. He was just someone they'd fucked about with, then lost track of. And they wanted him back under their observation. The bitch had just wanted AVALANCHE out of the way so she could fuck about further with the boy's insides, twist them about a bit more, breed him and the girl, create another Sephiroth. After all…AVALANCHE had put a stop to that nonsense two years ago. Why couldn't they do it again?

_'Because we're all trapped in a godforsaken prison' _Cid answered his own question with yet another drag on his cigarette. _'We're trapped in here while Gray and whoever is in charge of this Shithole cook up weird plans for Tye and his lady. That's why. And I'll be damned if there's not a Shinra exec in charge'_

"I guess" Cid agreed.

Unknown to both, Tifa and Vincent were not far away.

'Heartbeat regular. Brainwaves subdued. How're things over there?' 

_'She keeps asking for a tie'_

_'A what?'_

_'A tie. Over and over again. She keeps asking where tie is. I think it must be come sort of hallucination'_

_'Maybe she got chased by a giant tie'_

_Sniggering. In the whiteness and haze, echoed sniggering._

'Where is Tye?'

_ 'Oh, hang on Steve, she's started again. What was that?'_

'I want to see Tye' 

"I…want…Tye"

_'Okay. We'll find a tie for you soon. How do you feel?'_

'Like I wanna see Tye, fuckhead!'

"Sick"

_'That will pass, I promise you. Any numbness?'_

'You're numb in the head'

"No"

'Then you'll be fine' 'Is she suffering, Cal?' 

_'Says she feels sick'_

_'I'm not surprised. Kid almost died, you know'_

_'I see. Well there's no numbness. Number One Hundred experiment has been a success. We'll need to monitor what happens and report back to Murdoc'_

_'Oh, not that crackpot'_

_'Afraid so. Anyway, our shift's over in five. Wanna go for a drink?'_

_'Let me just file this, and we'll go. She'll be fine by herself for a few'_

**_'Don't leave me alone'_**

'You're right. Okay, ready?' 

_'Let's go'_

**_'No…no…don't go…'_**

She tried to open her mouth, but all that emerged was a dry squeak.

_The door slammed shut._

**_'No…please…'_**

****

They'd been walking in relative silence for at least ten minutes when they came to a door.

There was nothing altogether remarkable about the door. It was just plain, corrugated steel. But it was what lay behind that slab of peeling blue-grey steel that was important. 

"This is it" 

The tall redhead turned, peered at his tiny, dark-haired companion. "This is the way out" he informed with a small, pallid smile. "This…" he banged on the door with a bunched fist. It clanged hollowly, echoing for what seemed like an eternity "This is our ticket to freedom"

"But…but what about everyone else?"

"What about them?" Reno shrugged nonchalantly "You don't think they'd escape if they had the chance?"

"Well, they're searching for Cloud, Cid, Cait and Barret. We gotta find them before we even _think_ of going anywhere"

Reno wrinkled his nose in all too obvious distaste. He wiped his hands on his shirt, leaving black trails either side of that oh-so-appropriate phrase. "Yuffie, you know what your problem is? You're far too loyal"

"And what about you?" Yuffie challenged, eyeing him sceptically "You're telling me you don't care about Rude and Elena?"

"Of course I do!" Reno assured sincerely "But this is our chance, Yuffie! We escape now, we can stock up, rest, come back and blow the fucking place to smithereens!!"

His manic eyes, in the gloom, were like beacons. Bright blue beacons. 

"Come on, Yuffie. We'll get something to eat, somewhere to stay. Just one night. Then we'll come back. I promise"

Yuffie's own lilac eyes burned palely in the filthy darkness, pastel beacons not quite bright enough to challenge those of her cohort. Her words lacked true conviction. It was almost as if she felt _obliged_ to say them.

"What if one night is too long?"

"Trust me. It won't be."

Yuffie eyeballed him, possessed with a mixture of doubt, scepticism and outright mistrust. For a moment, Reno thought she might sulk, yell, storm off. But she didn't.

"One night" she agreed grudgingly, "But then we're straight back here."

The redhead placed one hand on his chest, right where his heart was buried.

"Promise"

Yuffie nodded him on.

Reno placed a dirty hand on the push-bar. A small square of plastic hung loosely above the door, partly obscured by a thick film of dirt. It read 'Ire It'

_'Didn't bet on us using the fucking fire exits, did they now?' _Reno grinned, depressing the bar. With a rusty squeal that suggested long-term negligence of its hinges, he opened up their gateway to freedom. Light poured in, flooding the cramped corridor like a jet of water, washing away the gloom with a burst of sepia colour.

Yuffie peered into the square of light and animation, into the portal that led to their freedom, and was disheartened by what she saw. Filth. Squalor. Dirt. Monotone greys, nauseous browns and greens. 

"This is freedom?" she squeaked incredulously.

"This is home" Reno corrected, unable to disguise the happiness in his voice. "This is Sector Two. Where I was born and bred. Come on, I'll show you where I lived!" he ran a few paces ahead before realising Yuffie was not following.

"What's the matter?" Reno quizzed, offering her a curious look.

"Well I've never seen this before"

_'That's cause you were raised in the lap of friggin' luxury, princess' _Reno wanted to say. But that would be too bitchy. A few weeks ago, Reno wouldn't even have hesitated in saying such a thing, but now…well, things were different now. He suppressed his bitter, cynical side and, in its place, adopted a slightly wistful tone.

"You say you've never seen this before, huh?" he kicked up a clod of dirt, grinning sadly "Lucky you"

Yuffie said nothing. She was still incredulous.  

He took a few more steps forward, before turning. He flung his arms into the air, as if presenting some beautiful masterpiece. The look on his face was unmistakeably happy. He was home.

"Welcome to paradise, honey"

Yuffie peered up. Above the tall, lean redhead, towers of twisted, broken metal and long-defunct wires spiralled into the early evening sky, obscuring the moon behind a spider's web of entwined cables and thin strips of dead metal. The long, gossamer threads of shining silver spiralled into the air, melding with the dirty grey clouds that swallowed the skeletal heights of the long-dead Shinra building, eclipsing the huge monolith like a death shroud. In fact…the sky was almost impossible to see.

Reno dropped his arms, looking straight into Yuffie's face. 

"Welcome to my home"

_Subtle Reffieness this time round. Yeah, I know what some of you are thinking. Yuffie and Reno *will* be spending the night together, but whether anything happens…that's pretty much up to you guys. If people want a lemon I'll try my best. If they'd rather it left to the imagination, that's cool too. And if they'd rather nothing happened yet, that's *also* fine. So please, give me a little feedback, tell me what you'd like to see. It would be a great help to me, it might help me get round my writer's block .. Also, Cloud *will* re-appear! He hasn't died! He's still here! _

_Okay, well, thanks to everyone who is still reading. I promise this fic won't go beyond chapter 30 _^_^ __

_Thanks!_

_Tio _^_^

TioRankP@hotmail.com

www.geocities.com/tiorankp/tiosquare.html

Roll on Chapter 21: 'Just One Night'


	21. Chapter 21-Secrets Of A Materia Hunter

Chapter 21-Secrets Of A Materia Hunter 

'Being caught up in the middle of death and disease kind of spoils my sense of humour' Yuffie Kisaragi 

_'But I don't have the right_

_To be with you tonight_

_So please leave me alone with no saviour in sight_

_I will sleep safe and sound_

_With nobody around me_

_When faced with my demons_

_I clothe them and feed them_

_And I smile, yes I smile_

_As they're taking me over_

_And if I cannot sleep for the secrets I keep_

_That's the price I'm willing to meet_

_Oh the end of the night never comes too quickly for me'_

_"Strange Glue"_

_Catatonia_

_Authoress's Note: Right. First off, thank you for the amount of feedback I've received on this chapter. It really has motivated me to kick down that writer's block _**^_^**_ you guys know who you are; I thank you all for your inspiration. Due to divided opinion over the proposed 'lemon' section…I have decided to try and create a happy medium. Which means there will be a lemon sometime in the near future but not in this particular chapter. Also it will be mild (I'm not actually legal to compose a lemon anyway _^^)_ so, without further ado, read on and enjoy! _

_*****************************************************************************************_

_They traipsed through the slums, two clean-cut figures standing tall and proud against the drooping metal and squalid shacks. The smaller one was clearly not a Midgar native…her eyes were a wide almond-shape, skin a pale olive. She lacked the scars, the cave-chested slouch, the hollow-eyed, impassive stare of typical Midgan youth. _

_But the taller man…across his cheek stretched a neat row of bleached white gouge-marks. It looked as if, at some point in his past he'd been savaged by a giant tiger. His face was narrow, not quite gaunt but getting there. Flaming red hair, lean body tattooed with various scars and bruises. Stereotypical Midgan street thug._

_Ayden Neman squinted in the sickly yellow glare of the sodium light overhead. There was something familiar about the redhead. He couldn't quite put a name to the face, but those scars…they were too distinctive. The tall man was not a mere look-alike. Those scars had been his trademark._

_Ayden stood up. His legs creaked beneath him like ancient hinges in need of oil. The pair stopped just inside the gates to Sector Two, apparently observing the squalor and filth that stretched out before them in all its ramshackle majesty.  _

_Then the girl called his name, and Ayden knew for sure that he wasn't imagining it._

_Reno Lozano had returned to Midgar._

"Reno Lozano?" 

Reno stopped talking and turned. Yuffie followed his gaze.

They saw a man rising slowly to his feet on their left.

Yuffie recoiled at the sight of him. Her feelings of disappointment, displacement and disgust were replaced by a single emotion: abject horror. The man was a walking corpse. He was dead, and completely unaware of it. 

His face was emaciated, almost translucent skin stretched over the jutting bones of his face like thin cotton stretched over pointy angles of broken glass. Sooner or later the cotton would tear itself open. It seemed his skin might do the same. His skin was dirty and pallid save for two fierce spots of feverish red resting high upon his cheekbones. Even his lips were mere lines of palest peach. His hair was black, thick and dull and almost as hectic as Cloud's. 

Then his eyes. A bloodshot hazel, they were steady, focused, full of a primal intelligence and a frightening intensity. And worse still, familiarity. 

Reno beamed. "Ayden Neman!" he called. "Ayden! How ya been?"

"I been great" Ayden replied, creaking towards them on thirty-seven year old legs that seemed as ancient as the hills of Dao-Chao. "Hear you made it to the Turks. That true?"

"Shinra's gone now," Reno reminded placidly. Then, with a small grin that showed just how proud he was of himself "But yeah. I was a Turk for a while"

Ayden attempted a whistle, a dry noise that sounded more like a cough. "Fancy that" his thin lips curved into a tiny smile that further stretched his pale skin. Yuffie cringed, sure it would tear open any second "One of our boys makin' Shinra" a frail, rusty arm reached out and patted the tall, lean Turk gingerly on the back before being slowly withdrawn to the side of its owner "You done us proud, Reno"

"Thanks Ayden" Reno beamed, the most genuinely happy smile Yuffie had ever seen on the dour redhead's face. His eyes were aflame with pride. Yuffie guessed that, with no family or true friends, Reno wasn't used to receiving praise. 

Ayden's attention suddenly switched from Reno to Yuffie. The girl recoiled in disgust as his eyes travelled the length of her body, scanning her with a sort of reserved interest. "And is this your girl?" he asked, bloodshot eyes never leaving Yuffie's frightened, repulsed visage.

"Nah" Reno dismissed "This is my friend Yuffie"

"Yuffie?" Ayden immediately noted, his hazel eyes burning with frightening ferocity into Yuffie's  "She's not a Midgan gal, is she now?"

Yuffie grimaced. She was close enough to feel the rancid fever baking off of him, to smell the graveyard stench of his breath, to see the bones as they pressed through his skin. She suddenly felt like puking.

"Nope" Reno answered, diverting Ayden's gaze, much to Yuffie's relief  "Wutaian"

"Wutaian" Ayden mused wisely. 'Oh, hel-lo!' Yuffie wanted to yell 'I am here you know! Stop talking as if I'm a friggin waxwork!' 

"Yeah, Wutaian" Yuffie replied curtly. "I've never been to Midgar before"

Ayden raised his eyebrows "Best not tell anyone else that, missy" he said sagely "They'll take advantage of ya. Stick with Reno here, he'll show you the ropes"

_'I KNOW that, old fart!' _Yuffie wanted to say. But she bit her tongue, cutting off the spiteful words. Instead, she smiled sweetly. "Oh, I'm sure he will" she said pleasantly. "Won't you, Reno?"

Reno flinched a little. His name had been spoken with enough muted vitriol to warn him that 'sweet, lovely girl Yuffie' was about to be replaced by 'angry bitch Yuffie'. Reno knew which he'd rather his old mentor be confronted with.

"Hey, Ayden" Reno grinned almost sheepishly, twisting his ponytail round his index finger "It's been great meetin' you again, but I've really gotta run. Gotta find a place to stay before the vices come out. See ya round, yeah?"

"Okay" Ayden seemed a bit put out by Reno's swift exit "Take care of yourself and your heifer, 'kay?"

_'Heifer?' _Yuffie's blood began to boil and, had she been a cartoon character, she knew that steam would be pouring out of her ears. But she kept down the bile, calmed herself, forced a sugary smile.

"Later" Reno said by means of casual goodbye.

"Bye" Ayden said with a creaky shrug. Expecting him to walk away, Yuffie followed his movements. 

She was surprised to see him settle slowly back on the crates he had been seated on when they'd arrived.

"Ain't you going home now?" she asked innocently.

Ayden's old, stretched features split into a wry smile. From the pit of his diseased stomach came a sound that, five years before might have turned into a laugh. 

"Home?" he asked, smiling an awfully denigrating smile "I ain't got a home, missy. This is my home"

Yuffie surveyed the area. Boxes. Crates. Puddles of filthy, stinking water. Hanging cables that still let off a periodical burst of blue sparks. A few rubbish bags from which spewed assorted rotting foodstuffs, which, later on, would undoubtedly become the basis of Ayden's dinner. Yuffie found herself retching at the mere thought.

"Oh…" Yuffie suddenly felt a little…well…_humbled._ Humbled enough to keep her temper with the old man in future. "Sorry"

Ayden grinned "No problems, little lady. Stay safe"

Yuffie peered around the dingy room. So, this was what Midgar called a 'hotel'? Wutai had better public toilets than this. A few grubby street urchins reading even filthier publications sat in a row on the floor, presumably waiting for service.

"The porn industry" Reno grinned, seeing the subject of Yuffie's distasteful expression. "One of the few thrivin' businesses in Midgar city. Along with pubs, whorehouses and mortuaries, that's the biggest earner"

"I see" Yuffie said slowly. The kids engrossed in these blearily printed magazines were about fifteen, perhaps sixteen maximum. All around them, bare plaster walls held together the most rudimentary hotel Yuffie had ever seen in her eighteen years. A miserable looking innkeeper engaged in what seemed to be a retarded form of bookkeeping…ripping out certain pages, underlining others. 

"It's not great, but it'll have to do" Reno told her "Sector Two is prob'ly the worst of the worst as far as the slums are concerned. But hey, they get by"

_'Barely'_ Yuffie shuddered to think what kind of danger she was putting herself in here. Sleeping overnight in a room by herself? She might be mugged! She might be killed in her sleep! Raped! She might die from drinking the goddamn tap water! 

Stay safe? Easier said than done.

No. She was willing to stick this out, but not alone.

"I hope you realise I'm not sleeping alone tonight" she stated, looking her companion right in the eye. "I don't know anything about this place, and you do. So you're sticking with me. I won't drink the water unless you do it first. I won't eat anything that you don't. Got that?"

Reno gave her a slightly bemused grin "Calm down!" he implored, looking all around him "you might insult someone. And believe me, you don't wanna insult anyone around here" unconsciously, his long fingers travelled to the gouge-marks on his face, feeling the shallow indents. 

"My point exactly" she said adamantly, jabbing an accusing finger at his chest "Which is why I'm gonna stick to ya like a burr until we're out of this place"

"Fine by me. So does that mean I'll be getting us a double?" a hint of mischief lingered around the thin arc of his mouth, glimmered in the dead centre of his icy eyes.

"Two singles" Yuffie said coldly.

Reno sighed. "I was makin' a joke" he said irritably "You could at least pretend to laugh"

"Sorry" she countered darkly "Being caught up in the middle of death and disease kind of spoils my sense of humour"

Reno stared it her impassively for a long, stale while. 

"Never did me any harm," he said finally, turning his back on the ninja and addressing the innkeeper. A dried up old woman, hollow-eyed with jagged cheekbones and hunched shoulders, she looked up at him with dull blue eyes and opened her mouth, releasing a dry croak which sounded oddly like "Whaddyawant?"

"I'd like a room please" Reno announce as politely as possible. Yuffie stifled a giggle; formal Reno was actually rather amusing.

"I coulda guessed that" she rasped irritably. "What kind?"

"Two singles please" Reno said again, trying his hardest to remain polite.

The old crone grinned, laughed a bone-dry laugh "No son, what I mean is: d'ya want the expensive kind or the cheap kind? All the rooms are singles"

"Oh" Reno cast a quizzical glance at Yuffie. The look on her face was wide-eyed and indignant. He sighed. Expensive it was.

"Expensive" he replied. At this, the three porn-readers all looked up, greedy eyes fixed on the tall redhead.

_'Whoopee Reno' _Yuffie thought, casting a worried glance at the urchins _'Get us friggin' mugged, why don't ya'_

The old lady whistled, "Well thank you sir!" she exclaimed chirpily "Two hundred and fifty gil if you please!" 

"That's a bit extortionate, don't you think?" Yuffie commented as she watched Reno part gingerly with his money.

The old crone tucked the wad into her pocket, grinning all the while "Little lady, if you want quality you gotta _pay_ for it. Room three" she tossed a small key in Reno's direction "Enjoy your stay"

_'If you want quality, you gotta pay for it'_

"*This* is quality, huh?" Yuffie folded her arms and peered around in abject disgust. "*This*. I'll tell you what *this* is, shall I Reno? *This* is a FUCKING SHITHOLE!"

"This is all we've got!" Reno challenged fiercely "If you wanna scurry on back to that prison, go ahead, scurry! But I don't fancy being out among junkies and muggers at this time of night!"

Yuffie was silent for a moment.

"I'm sorry," she said finally.

"Right" Reno said tersely. He pulled his shirt over his head and placed it in a sloppy pile next to his thin blue jacket. Yuffie once again caught a glimpse of that weird tattoo, the one etched in basic Wutaian. A small black letter belonging to some ancient lexicon, sitting alone beneath the shadowed curve of his collarbone. What did it mean? She attempted to decipher it for a while until Reno's deep voice cut her off.

"Yuffie?"

"Hmm?" Yuffie trained her eyes on his face, making sure she looked as innocent as possible.

Reno faked an exasperated sigh "I know I'm sexy, but I just asked you a question and you just sat there gawping. Which bed do you want?"

"Sorry. Er…" Yuffie briefly scanned the beds. Although basic and lumpy-looking, they seemed infinitely more comfy than the 'beds' back at the compound. One by the window, one in the corner. Both covered with thing, off-white sheets that looked like they'd offer the warmth and protection of a jam sandwich. But hey, far better than those poor concrete mattress efforts back in 'prison'.

But…no way was she sleeping by the window.

"That one" she pointed out the corner bed. 

Reno grinned automatically. 

"What's so funny?" Yuffie complained petulantly, kicking off Elena's loose, muddy trainers and letting them roll aimlessly beneath the bed. The soaked grey socks followed. Her bare feet pressed against the scratchy blue carpet. 

"I didn't think you'd wanna sleep by the window," he said knowingly, scratching his tattoo absently. Once again, Yuffie found her eyes drawn to that peculiar mark, that small symbol comprised of graceful sweeps and calligraphy flourishes.

"Reno" she asked suddenly, distractedly. "What does your tattoo mean?"

Reno stopped scratching, suddenly aware that the mark was there on display, a coal-black branding against a pale canvas. He considered his answer for a moment, apparently searching the air around him for the suitable wording. Then he stretched, long and slow, and his lean muscles were taut against slightly tanned skin, stretching to the point of snapping beneath his scarred hide. 

"I was very young when I got this done" he answered finally, sitting himself down on the bed. His descent was heralded by a loud, shrill cry as the rusty, ancient springs gave way to his not-particularly-impressive girth. He began to untie his own scabby trainers absently.

"But what does it mean?" Yuffie tried again, suddenly wishing there was a shower around. She felt filthy. Elena's jumper, now a dirty grey, clung to her uncomfortably. Her hair was unkempt and messy. Her teeth felt as if they were coated in suede. She felt utterly disgusting. Sure, she was used to feeling rough. But for some reason, right now she was craving cleanliness.

"It means suicide," Reno told her bluntly, never looking up from the absorbing task at hand. "Several other guys got the same tattoo. It was just one of those things, you know, somethin' you do when you're really young because you think it sounds cool"

"Suicide…" Yuffie mused. Not pride, but the complete antithesis of that noble word. How strange that she had mistaken it for a word that now seemed so un-Reno. Pride? Suicide was definitely far more apt. 

"Mm-hmm" Reno agreed, kicking off one mud-encrusted trainer and watching with satisfaction as it rolled across the floor and stopped, forlorn and filthy against the pastel blue wall, leaving a small streak of greyish mud curving upwards. "Sometimes you'd look at yourself in the mirror and see what you'd scarred yourself with. Suicide…" he appeared to drift off into his own world for a moment, eyes narrowing in spiteful self mockery "I mean, what a dumb thing to carve into yourself…I thought it was so cool…didn't I? But suicide…?"

"Yeah, well…" Yuffie swallowed hard. For some reason his words were making her nervous. Perhaps it was the scathing tone he delivered them in. Even worse…he was rebuking himself. If it had been her on the receiving end of those derogatory comments, she knew that a few acid-soaked comments in return would have spelled the end of the argument. But when Reno argued with himself like this…it was almost schizophrenic…

"Look," she said, quelling the nerviness in her voice "I'm really tired…do you mind if I just go straight to sleep?"

Reno shrugged nonchalantly, kicking off his other trainer with ease "that's fine with me, Yuffie" he said coolly, pulling his long legs up onto the bed and laying back in one liquid manoeuvre. "Any problems, just holler. I'll be right here"

"Thanks" she said, lying back in her own bed. The mattress was indeed full of irritating lumps and bumps, and the thin top sheet held the musty, bitter aroma of cigarettes. A smell she often associated with a certain middle-aged pilot. Suddenly she realised how much she missed that old pilot, as well as her other cohorts. And what of Cloud? Along with Barret, Cid and Cait, he'd been missing without a trace. She just hoped that they were faring better than Brody.

A wave of gritty sleepiness washed over her gently, and suddenly she realised how fatigued she felt. Reno had been right all along. She was still ill, and she could feel it, gnawing at her aching, cold bones, tearing at her dry, swollen throat, baking a slow fever across her body. She could fight the sickness; stop it before it got too strong. She didn't know how long she could fight, but fight she must. 

Thoughts of war, a war against the nauseating, malignant parasite inside her still filled her head when she fell asleep at last. 

"How long now?"

"Two days and counting"

Cloud sighed, leaned back. He and Barret had been trapped in the same cell for what felt like an age. Barret's gruffly candid observations on the cell ("Fuckin' shithole!") had ceased to be amusing after the fiftieth exclamation. From time to time, they'd catch snippets of other people's conversations…at one point Cloud had heard someone yell something about Neil Sedaka. And during the first day of imprisonment, the tuneful whinings of someone's harmonica often broke the monotonous silence.

"D'ya think they're gonna kill us?" Barret asked.

Cloud looked up. "That's a genuine question, isn't it?" he checked. 

The huge, dark man nodded. One beefy hand searched his pockets for ammunition. Unlike Cloud, he still had his weapon…the Max Ray was still firmly screwed on…but his ammo was gone. Not a sausage.

Cloud sighed for what must have been the ninety-fifth time. "Probably" he said on an outward breath. "I heard that they killed a girl yesterday. Tough, big-mouthed, black hair" his inquisitive gaze settled upon the big man's square-set face. "Who does that sound like to you?"

Barret's jaw twitched in agitation "Sounds like that ninja freak of ours" he said gruffly.

"Yuffie" Cloud said, almost in correction. "I hope they haven't done anything to her…but we always seem to forget that she's not just a girl off the street. She's heir to the throne of Wutai. They could do anything with her…hold her to ransom, assassinate her…anything at all"

Barret mused this for a moment, his huge bulk resting awkwardly against the cold plaster of the wall. Then, in a low, thick voice, he offered his own unique philosophy on the matter.

"Stupid little ninja"

_Even in your dreams, Kisaragi._

_Even then, I'll be with you._

**_Who are you?_**

_I'm part of you, Kisaragi-Chan. Always have been._

**_…What do you want?_**

_Ten years ago. I want you to tell me what happened._

**_No…not again…_**

_Yes. Now tell me. I'm tired of playing with you, Kisaragi-Chan. Ten years ago, on Dao-Chao. _

**_You know what I did_**

_Yes. I believe I do. You told me, remember? When you were sick. But you never told me her name. The name of the one you killed._

**_I never killed her!_**

_Oh, but you did. _

**_Fuck you! What do you know!?!_**

_Everything_

**_Like what!?! Tell me!_**

_I know what you did. It's just so much better to hear it from you. Straight from your mouth, Kisaragi. Who was it? What was her name? _

**_FUCK YOU!_**

_You can never escape from yourself. Deny me all you want, I am you, you are me, we are one. The only difference is, I know I am a murderer. All those creatures you've killed…all those Shinra soldiers…you even killed Christine Scarlett!! Murderer. _

**_I…I'm not…_**

_Her name. Tell me._

**_I'm not…not…_**

_Tell me!_

"Fuck YOU!!!!!!!!!!!"

Her shrill screech brought Reno roughly into the world of the waking, His first thought was that someone had come in through the window and was…attempting things with Yuffie.

He peered over, trying to make sense of the shadows and silhouettes that the room was comprised of. Yuffie was curled up in a tight ball, her sheet dangling off the bed onto the floor. There was nobody else in sight. In fact, the window was closed tight, as was the door. As far as Reno could see…nobody had been anywhere near the room. Yuffie must have been having a bad dream.

He lay back down, griping silently about having been woken up. His head felt thick and swimmy as it usually did when he'd been woken up at…he checked the clock hung loosely on the wall, squinting in the foggy darkness. Five past two!?! He closed his gritty eyes and attempted to get back to sleep. 

A sound brought him straight back to consciousness.

Yuffie was whimpering quietly, sobbing gently into her pillow. Reno once again peered over, unsure as to whether she was awake or not.

"Yuffie? Are you awake?" his voice was as murky as his head. For a moment he thought his voice had gone unheard…it had been such a garbled mass of yawn, thick tongue and words that it hadn't really resembled a sentence. But then Yuffie turned, blinked sleepily, coughed.

"Yeah" her voice was rough, and she forced a cough. Sniffing a little, she swallowed hard and let out a sigh before turning onto her back and pulling the blanket back over her fully clad body.

"Are you alright?" Reno asked.

"Bad dream" Yuffie pushed her face back into the pillow, trying to mask the upset look that adorned her face and the tears that ornamented it. Her muffled, croaky voice escaped the pillow.

"I had a bad dream" Her voice was slightly less rough, but hiccupy, and Reno knew she'd been crying. "You should tell me about it" he suggested, copying her movements and rolling onto his back, feeling soft, worn cotton press against the rapidly healing burn-scars that still disfigured his lean back. The result was mild discomfort, a sort of painful itch. He shifted back onto his side. "Better than constantly panicking, right?"

The defiant reply came almost immediately. 

"I'm not panicking" Yuffie's voice was still muffled by the pillow and her own choked tears, but it seemed that things had gotten a little bit more under control. "Just had a bad dream. Go back to sleep"

Reno grinned to himself. Yuffie was a tough nut to crack, even in the throes of a nightmare.

"Tell me about your dream" His voice was firm, almost a command rather than a request.

"It doesn't bother me any more"

"That's a lie!" 

There was a pause. Yuffie realised she had no smart-arse comeback this time. She buried her face further into the pillow, tasting cotton as she accidentally opened her mouth. 

"Tired." A mumbled voice came from the pillow. "Tell ya tomorrow." 

"Now" Reno commanded, feeling goosebumps prickle up his bare arms, spreading like a rash across his chest and back. He shivered involuntarily. Annoyed with himself for losing the argument, he simply nodded without a word, and then slipped silently into the warm embrace of his own blanket. He turned to his side (making sure he was facing Yuffie) and pulled the covers to his shoulders. 

Yuffie pulled her face out of the pillow and shifted onto her side, the sheet resting across her sylphlike figure. Reno examined, with interest, Yuffie's form, studying the way the thin sheet veiled her, laying so still in the nauseous light of the sodium lamps that she was statuesque. Her eyes were closed against his stares now, their troubled lilac depths hidden from his prying gaze. She seemed to sense his eyes upon her and pulled the sheet up to her face, holding it so only the thin curves of her eyebrows were visible.

"Yuffie" Reno tried again, gentler this time. God, this was unlike him! Usually he'd just tell her to snap out of it, to grow up and stop being scared of the dark…why didn't he just say that? After all, wasn't that expected of him?

_'I need a smoke' _Reno thought to himself before continuing, "Yuffie, something's the matter. I know, because you've been frettin' about this for some time now"

"No I haven't" Yuffie said calmly, eyes firmly closed.

Reno bit his tongue. He wondered if he knew how infuriating she could be. Probably. "Yes you have" he said coolly "Tifa told me about your breakdowns. When you were ill…she said you had a schizo moment when you woke up. And after your bath" he paused briefly, wrinkling his nose in disgust "Yuffie, Tifa thought I'd fuckin' _raped_ you"

At this, Yuffie's eyes sprang open. Cool lavender met the murkiness of the night, the beautiful colour completely bastardised by the jaundiced light of the street lamps. She seemed to chew this over in her mind for a while before answering.

"I told her you didn't!" she said at last, voice somewhere between surprised exclamation and angry statement. 

"Yeah, well, this is me we're talking about" Reno said, as if his words were the epitome of rationality "I know Tifa trusts me about as far as she can throw me. So don't be too surprised that she double-checked"

"I hope you set her straight" Yuffie said, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah. I did" Reno confirmed, "I think she believed me"

"'Cause, you know, I'd never ever let you rape me," she said. Reno almost laughed at the steadfast self-assurance in her voice, then remembered the subject of their discussion. Reno had done a lot of regrettable things…but never rape. He'd never even considered rape. And he'd certainly never considered raping Yuffie. He could distantly recall the moment when he'd first met the young, spirited ninja…Gongaga forest, two years back. He and Rude had been discussing which female they liked the most…a regular point of discussion between the two back in their early Turk days, when missions were sparse and the waiting between was boring. Rude had said Tifa…how could Reno disagree? Tifa was damn fine to look at. Not his type in terms of personality…far to placid. Reno had known that his shaven-headed cohort had been hiding feelings for their newest recruit, a perky little blonde by the name of Elena Leonhardson. Who, he was to discover, had feelings for their leader, Yoshiro Tseng. Who in turn was in love with the very same woman he loved. 

God, this love business was complex! So when Yuffie, Cloud and a huge robotic moogle by the name of Cait Sith (one of Reeve's more ingenious inventions) had entered the clearing, he'd been completely taken by surprise. Where was Aeris? Who was looking after her? So many questions. But then the little ninja, so full of laughable bravado and self-assurance (not to mention skill) had sparked something off in him. She was young, no older than sixteen, and unquestionably tough (he'd realised that from the moment she leapt into battle, only just dodging the wildly spinning blades of her Wind Slash shuriken) and her candid remarks in the heat of battle had been hugely entertaining, even for someone right in the line of her fire. Where he'd openly despised Cloud and mocked Barret, he'd respected Yuffie.

_'I thought she'd make a good Turk'_ he recalled, smiling to himself _'Tseng agreed. He knew talent when he saw it. Wasn't he going to try and entice her over to our side? Wasn't that the whole reason me and Rude helped Spike rescue her in Wutai? Because we knew she was useful'_

"So" he said, dismissing his train of thoughts and concentrating instead on the situation at hand "Are you gonna tell me what's up? Or are you gonna go schizo? Either one's fine with me"

Yuffie sighed. She pulled the blanket back up to her eyes, her dark chocolate hair feathering across the off-white cotton. Then, pulling the blanket back to her collarbone in one vicious movement, she stared darkly at her companion.

"I'm gonna tell you" she said, voice every bit as dark and dangerous as the expression in her eyes. "I'm gonna tell you everything. And if you hate me, you hate me. Okay?"

Reno shrugged, a little unnerved by the ferocity in her tone.

"Ten years ago" Yuffie began, rolling onto her side so she could face Reno. "I'd recently turned eight. My dad was teaching me how to use Materia…this was before the war, so we had the materia, we had everything. And so I was learning how to use Materia. And even then, I loved the stuff"

Reno grinned.

"So after the lesson, I gave back the Materia. Or at least, I was s'posed to. I kept behind a couple of orbs, just to see if I could use it alone. My mama had specifically told me not to use it unless dad was around to supervise" in the darkness, Reno saw Yuffie roll her eyes. "But you know, when you're eight, you just want some freedom. You want people to trust you"

_'That never changes' _Reno wanted to tell her, but out of sheer respect, he kept quiet.

"So I went up to Dao-Chao. There are plenty of monsters up there, and I just wanted to see whether I could use the Materia on my own. So, up I went, feeling like the biggest eight-year-old in the world. I felt so strong…" she trailed off, voice wavering, and Reno could see tears gather in her eyes. He watched as she blinked them all back furiously. "…Anyway" she continued, quelling her nerves and steadying her voice again "anyway, my mama found out what I'd done. She was royally pissed, just like I knew she'd be. And she followed me, all the way up to Dao-Chao. We were on the palm, the very same part that you were standing one when you rescued me and Elena"

_'She remembers' _Reno told himself, and for some reason he was absurdly pleased by this.

"And she started shouting at me…and I shouted back…" this time there was no disguising it; hot tears spilled out, catching jaundiced street-lamp glare as they slid down her pale face, glittering amber for a split second before rolling down. "She was so annoyed…that I'd lied to her…and…and…she slapped my face…so I got annoyed…" her words were being rapidly swallowed by fits of hiccupping sobs and choked tears, and Reno found himself getting a bit worried…worried because, even in the wake of female tears, he usually remained impassive, cold, full of biting commentary to help them snap back into rationality. But right now, something was telling him to cross the room, to drag his lazy arse out of bed, to go over and hold her and help her see this one through.

He didn't. Instead he kept silent, allowed her to finish.

"I got pissed," she continued, swallowing down a huge sob and reaching up with a frail, shaky hand to wipe away the tears that tickle her cheeks. "And I…I didn't mean it but I pushed her…I just lost my temper, Reno! I didn't mean it!" he last words were not much more than a plaintive cry. Huge lavender eyes begged his absolution, begged him to forgive her for this heinous crime, a crime the ninja regarded as so bad that she couldn't fight off the tears, couldn't stop the sobs from wrecking any chance of comprehensible speech. "I didn't mean it! But the rock crumbled…and she fell…sh…she fell…sh…she fell and she died!!! She died _hating me_!" 

"Hey…" Reno began, but found himself cut off by the fresh fit of sobbing. He suddenly felt pretty much helpless. What could he do? She'd just told him, in no uncertain terms, that she'd killed her mother. Not on purpose…fuck no, she had been _eight_, she hadn't meant it…the rock had crumbled…but…she'd pushed her…and now here she was, telling herself what a cold-blooded bastard of a murderer she was.    

That wasn't so. 

"Yuffie, it's okay," he said, rolling to he very edge of his bed. "C'mon, I believe you, it's not your fault"

"But…it _is_" she managed to spit before dissolving again.

That was it. Reno swung into a sitting position, pulling his blanket around him like a cape. His bare feet touched the warm carpet and he let them sink into the filthy polyester as he stood, wobbly on tired legs. Then he walked, balancing precariously as his legs threatened to mutiny beneath him, across to where Yuffie lay, curled in a tiny ball. She looked so tiny, so scared, so vulnerable. He balanced himself on the very edge of her bed, long legs anchoring him in that sitting position.

One hand rested upon her shoulder. She flinched automatically.

"It wasn't your fault" he said again, deep voice so gentle and un-Reno that it was a mere rumble. He sounded like Vincent, but with far more warmth and compassion.

Yuffie allowed herself to look up. She had never heard Reno speak like that before. She'd always believed that his repertoire consisted of 1) smart-arse comebacks 2) witty one-liners 3) insults and 4) smooth-as-silk lines to help him weasel his way out of tricky situations. Not this; gentle encouragement, sympathetic re-assurance. Huge, teary grey-lilac eyes glimmered like pools of disturbed water for a second, full of surprise. She thought he was joking about. But he wasn't. He was deadly serious. He didn't hate her.

Even knowing what she'd done, Reno didn't hate her.

"Come on, calm down" he said soothingly, his callused thumb moving back and forth across the soft fabric covering her shoulder. Such a comforting gesture. Yuffie thought back to the Crater…when he'd caught her as she'd tumbled down, away from that Lameious beast. He'd done the same then. Whenever he was frightened for her; that's when he'd comfort her.

"I'm sorry," she said shakily "for scaring you"

"That's okay" Reno dismissed, gazing benevolently down at her. "Yuffie, stop telling yourself that what happened was your fault. It wasn't"

"But…"

"It _wasn't"_ Reno's tone was all at once fierce but gentle. "Come on. You can't keep beating yourself up over it. You were _eight_. Eight years olds do not kill, they just end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. You were unlucky"

Yuffie opened her mouth to let out a disconsolate reply, but the look in Reno's eyes told her not to. Maybe the Turk was right. No matter what happened…it was past. It could never be undone. And what was the sense in thinking about times gone by? It never occurred to her at that point that Reno was being deeply hypocritical. After all, how many times had he sat and punished himself for stupid mistakes made in his youth?

It didn't occur to her because she was so damn comfortable.

The girl's arms slowly started to extend, stretching out from their dormant place on the bed and reaching out. Her fingertips trailed up the length of Reno's bare arms. Her hand at his neck tangled thin strands of magma red hair. For a minute, Reno braced away, realising what she was doing, knowing within himself that it couldn't happen, it shouldn't, but it did. Both of them were weak and afraid. Neither chose to admit it. Yuffie leaned up, arching her back, and kissed Reno. And, after a second of hesitation, Reno kissed back, tasting salty tears, reaching one arm beneath the graceful curve of Yuffie's back so as to support her feather-light weight. He quickly considered the situation. Was this right? Yuffie was so young.... All thoughts, however, were abruptly pushed out of his mind. He couldn't think straight right now. He pulled away, regarding Yuffie's surprised, almost worried face.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" he asked, catching his breath quickly.

Yuffie nodded breathlessly and offered her teary face forward.

Without further invite Reno kissed again, and in a flash they were pressed together fervently. She offered her mouth up to him, trusting him to make good use of it. The feeling was unfamiliar yet comforting. She could faintly pick up the clean scent of his hair. She pressed the kiss in further, and then pulled up just enough to break it apart. Her lips left Reno's, and he opened his eyes to look down at her.

Yuffie's grey-lilac eyes reflected the alarming blue of Reno's, and for a while he simply stared down into them. His fingertips brushed the ninja's pale, tear-veined cheek with all the delicacy he could muster. Yuffie smiled, and in the faint light she could have sworn she saw the faintest hint of a blush creeping up his cheeks.

"No more" Reno said, catching his breath and lowering her back onto the bed "Not now"

"Why…?" Her voice was slightly confused and flustered and was tinged with that spoilt-brattiness that the others so often attributed to her. Upon her cheeks appeared a deep red hue that easily put Reno's to shame. She blushed fervently, and looked up at Reno with wide eyes.

"Because tomorrow is a big day. Tomorrow we beat the shit out of Loki fucking Gray and her freaky puppet bitch" the words from Reno's mouth were so harsh and battle-craving that Yuffie had to kick herself to truly believe how gentle he'd been a second ago. "And…I can't do that if I've got you on my mind"

"Okay" Yuffie was fairly content with this explanation. She was too tired to argue.

Reno allowed himself to absorb her wide-eyed, flawless beauty for a few moments more before he shut off the blue flame of his eyes with a long, tired blink. When he opened them again, the young ninja was still looking up at him, some indecipherable emotion lurking in the kaleidoscope depths of her eyes. He'd fallen, alright. And it seemed that she had too.

"Goodnight" she said quietly, a hint of a smile playing on her lips.

"Goodnight" he agreed, pushing himself back off her bed. He yanked up his blanket cape, pulling it up around his bare torso and, with one final smile, lay clumsily back down on his bed where the rough, maladroit hands of sleep seized his tired body with fearful speed.

Yuffie ran her tongue over her lips, still not believing what had just happened. Her eyes kept flitting over to where Reno lay, fast asleep already and breathing gently, so peaceful and innocent looking in the throes of sleep.    __

_'And who'd have guessed?' _she mocked herself _'Who'd have guessed that the bratty little ninja and the obnoxious Turk…the two that hated each other so much in the beginning…who'd have guessed that it'd come to this?'_

_'Who'd have thought it?'    _

--------_So no lemon this time round. But there might well be one in the future, depending on whether I feel confident enough to pull it off. ANGST! REFFIENESS! Everyone loves a bit of Reffieness, don't they? Well I enjoy writing it. Especially when I'm aware that there are people reading and enjoying this. So I hope this chapter was good, I hope it lived up to expectations. Thank you Asuka, Morning Zephyr, Aretti, Clara, Chuu, Scarr, Magnum Opus, Reese and everyone else who I've shamefully forgotten. _

_Chapter 22 ('Breakout') is currently under construction, and will feature Tye and Cid, Juvi, Cait Sith (hooray!) Tifa, Vinnie, Elena, Josie, Rude…basically everyone I've neglected _^^

_Comments, poetry/art requests to TioRankP@hotmail.com or visit www.geocities.com/tiorankp/tiosquare.html _

_Thanks again!_

Tio Rank P-----------

_p.s Just thought I'd let y'all know that I'm past the 100 page point!_


	22. Chapter 22-Breakout!

**Chapter 22-Breakout**

**__**

_'__She thought I was the devil'_

Vincent Valentine 

_'You got your Jesus on the dashboard but devil's under my hood_

_You're taking it down to legal, I'm pulling it up to no good_

_God is your co-pilot, I let Satan ride shotgun_

_You pay a toll to get to heaven but on the road to hell there's none_

Get up, you're asleep at the wheel' 

"Asleep At The Wheel" 

_The Bloodhound Gang_

_Thunk._

_Bonk. Bonk. Thunk. Whack. Squish._

_A long pause…_

_Bonk. Bonk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Bonk. Poink. Squish._

_CRASH._

_Bonk, bonk, bonk, bonk. SQUISH._

_A longer pause._

_Thunk, thunk, thunk CRASH_

"THE MOOGLE IS GETTING AWAY!"  
"STOP IT! STOP IT!"

Cait Sith's moogle, re-energised and raring to go, leapt up from the mass of broken, twisted metal that used to be the door and began leaping away like huge white kangaroo. The little black cat atop the moogle held on to his crown and clung on to his steed's pointy ear, red cape flapping manically behind him like a bloody flag. Close on his tail were two woefully inadequate guard, both dressed in the standard grey-green uniform, both equipped with sub-machine guns, both sporting the same shocked expression. The huge moogle, the big lummox of a useless machine that they'd both considered unthreatening and pretty much obsolete had single-handedly knocked down the door and was hurtling down the corridor like a giant marshmallow. The black cat controlling the mechanised beast was cackling madly, occasionally waving what looked like a megaphone above his head in time to loud, gleeful chants of "JAILBREAK! JAILBREAK!"

"Shoot it! Shoot the fucker!" shouted one guard, raising his gun to eye level and releasing a short burst of pellets. They thudded in sequence past Cait Sith and into the wall, and the moogle sped up.

"Take this!" bellowed Cait Sith, exuding a wispy green aura for a moment before both guards were engulfed in a huge blast of white-hot lightning. This shocked them long enough for the cat and moogle to make a swift exit, turning right at the crossroads and heading towards the huge, wall-mounted sign that read 'East Wing'.

_--Way back in Junon, Elmyra and Shera watched anxiously as Reeve guided the moogle towards where he knew Cloud and Barret were trapped—_

"Dear Cha-sey Laine, I wrote to complain, you never wrote me back…"

Cid watched in defeated surprise as Tye began to play air guitar along to this imaginary song, his dishevelled scarlet locks now messier than ever.

"How could I ever eat, your ass when you treat, your big-gest fan like that?"

Cid prepared himself for the very real possibility of a yelled refrain. Amazingly, there was none. Tye continued to sing in that same gravelly, vaguely tuneful tone of his, thrashing away at an invisible guitar as he did so.

"You've had a lot-ta dick…had a lot-ta dick…I've had a lot-ta time…had a lot-ta time…" each time he repeated the line, his voice would suddenly, inexplicably drop a few octaves, the result a weird baritone rumble accompanied by a grin "You've had a lot-ta dick Cha-sey…but you ain't had mi-ine!"

"Tasteful" Cid commented sourly, as Tye finished the song with a flourish and a grin. How was it possible that someone who, a few hours earlier had been so thoroughly pissed off that he'd included at least seven cuss-words in each sentence, was now singing at the top of his nicotine-stained lungs? He was like one of those kids…one of those cute, lovely little five year olds that you think are so angelic and sweet…until you dare to talk to them and they kick you in the shins, grinning and yelling "fuck off!" at the top of their tiny lungs. The bastards. Cid suddenly felt his customary cynicism return with a vengeance.

"There are more verses, but I don't want to sing them" Tye told him matter-of-factly.

"Is that so" Cid said, trying to sound as disinterested as possible.

There was a moment of blissful silence as Cid and Tye both sat, staring into their own respective spaces, drifting off into their own little worlds.

This peaceful mood was, as per usual, shattered by Tye and his impromptu mental karaoke.

"All-my-friends drive a low-rider!" he sang, putting on that same low, rumbling baritone voice "And a low-ride-er is a little higher! Take a little trip, take a little trip, take a little trip you-and-me! Doo doo doo doo doo doo, doo, doo doo doo doo-doo!"

"That's it!" Cid finally snapped "Shut up! Shut the FUCK up or I shall be forced to make you eat floor! Am I making myself understood!?!"

Tye stopped, mid-hum. His eyes were wide and surprised, mouth still formed to voice the single-syllable word that made up his song's refrain. All at once he looked innocent…and like one of those deceptive little five-year-olds.

"Well there was no need to shout, was there?" the younger man said benevolently.

Cid gritted his teeth, He wondered if the young man knew how infuriating his endlessly benign nature could be. But before he could utter another vitriolic remark, they were both distracted by the clicking of a key in the lock.

"Neil Sedaka dude?" Tye's hopeful voice broke the tense hush. He pushed himself a little way off the bed, straightening up and taking a few slow steps towards the door.

Cautiously, whoever was behind the door opened it a few cracks.

"Cid?" a low female voice whispered. "Cid, are you there?"

"Tifa?" Cid hissed back. His narrow eyes, eyes the colour of faded blue jeans, eyes that, in his youth, would have undoubtedly been his most attractive features, fixed upon the tiny crack in the door. "Tifa, is that you?"

The door opened a few more cracks, and Cid could see quite clearly Tifa's mahogany eyes, a select strip of her curvy figure, shiny locks of dark hair. Yeah, that was Tifa alright. But how…?

"How'dya get out, Tifa?" he asked as she pushed a small, materia-laden Bolt armlet through the crack in the door. He accepted it, clipping it onto his arm and pushing it beneath the sleeve of his sky blue jacket. He'd work out just what was equipped later on. But right now there were too many questions. 

"It was Yuffie" Tifa said simply "If it wasn't for her, we'd still be trapped"

"Yuffie?" Cid mused briefly "So she _is_ good for something then"

"She and Reno are looking for an exit right now" Tifa told him conspiratorially, opening the door so she could stand comfortably in the gap between door and wall. She glanced at the redheaded stranger for a second, offering him a brief, wary look before enquiring "And this is?"

"Tye Reynold" Tye introduced himself chirpily, offering her a battle-scarred hand "You must be Tifa Lockheart, of AVALANCHE?"

"That's right" Tifa answered with a grin "Nice to meet you, Tye"

"Likewise" Tye grinned with genuine warmth, shaking her hand. "You're a kind of celebrity round here, you know, 'The Heroine Barmaid'. You here to rescue us?"

Tifa laughed, a genuine, musical laugh "I guess so" she said amiably, returning her hand to her side. Sensing Cid's disapproval, she decided to ire the old pilot further, just for fun "Have you been entertaining Cid?" she asked, pretending her question was innocent.

Cid broke into a short coughing fit, and Tifa was willing to bet there was a sarcastic message concealed in that cough. She shook her head, secretly glad to have her friend back.

"We haven't got that much time" a deep, steady voice from outside informed. Tifa turned. She'd almost forgotten the presence of the dark gunslinger. "Bring Cid and let's go"

"Is Vince there too?" Cid asked. "Hey Vince!"

"Yeah" Tifa informed, pressing a finger across her lips in a bid to lower Cid's volume "He and Yuffie were in the same cell. He was one of the first she rescued."

Cid whistled. "Poor Vince. Bein' holed up with Yuffie must be the closest thing to living hell"

Tye turned, a placid look adorning his undeniably handsome face.

"I thought I was?" he asked, hurt.

Tifa's eyes widened in surprised amusement. The boy was certainly entertaining…Tifa didn't know if his uncomplicated manner and naïve commentary were intentional or just part of his nature, but she was willing to bet that Cid had hated being holed up with him.

_'I guess he's a male Yuffie' _she smiled, watching as Cid shot Tye a look to kill. 

"Vincent" she asked, turning so she could directly address the stoic gunman "We can't leave Tye here. Do you think we should take him with us?"

Vincent's low, even voice sounded again "I have no qualms on the matter" he said steadily "He seems to be pure in spirit. His intentions are good"

Tifa exchanged glances with Cid.

"He means 'Yes'" Cid informed.

Tifa smirked.

"Come on" she informed a grinning Tye "Stick close to us. If you lag behind, we'll be forced to leave you"

"No problem" Tye said casually.

"Vincent remembers the way back. It's a long road"

Cid rolled his eyes. With Tye on board, the road to freedom was destined to be tedious.

_She watched._

_They'd escaped. Good. That was how it was meant to work. She'd specifically requested low security, just to make things that little bit easier._

_Oh, this was a fun game! She watched them attempt to traverse her custom-built labyrinth of grey corridors, occasionally pausing to take a dainty bite out of a tuna sandwich Shawn had lovingly prepared for her. Korei was resting, on her orders. The girl was still young, and needed frequent rests if she was to learn how to harness these newly-developed powers of hers. _

_Gray had always known Korei's potential. She had merely…encouraged her, prodded her along. If nature had been allowed to take its course, the girl wouldn't have developed such power until at least her mid-twenties. And that was too far away. Anyway, there was nothing like youth plus power. Such a deadly combination. Gray chewed thoughtfully on her sandwich, considering her options. She wasn't about to out-and-out copy Sephiroth's method…no, he had failed, and Gray would not. Besides, this time it was different. Sephiroth had been one man…a truly amazing man in terms of power and mental capacity…but a lone man nonetheless. Gray knew how hard going it solo was. That was why she'd enlisted the help of all these people. Ex-Shinra soldiers and scientists…powerful, spirited rebels from various Midgan dropout groups…not to mention a hundred-strong army of her very own genetically 'enhanced' monsters._

_In her own mind, Gray was 'unstoppable'._

_The problem was, it wouldn't be long before she truly lived up to this moniker._

"JAILBREAK! JAILBREAK!"  
Cait Sith bounded along the corridor, hanging on to his moogle steed for all he was worth. Ever since Reeve had finished the Cait Sith project a year ago, the tiny cat had been able to operate completely independently of its former master. The Moogle that acted as his transport still relied on computerised commands, but Cait was able to work on his own problems and disperse of his own obstacles while the moogle concentrated on…running away.

Like now. Cait was bellowing the same word over and over again through his megaphone while firing mid-power Bolt spells (there was nothing like a moogle's battery compartment for hiding backup materia from prying Ninjas…or corrupt gang leaders) at a string of hapless soldiers that, despite the hammering they were receiving, were intent on following. One tiny hand was latched onto the moogle's ear with vice-like tenacity while the huge white creature raced down the seemingly endless corridor, thundering like a charging polar bear, trampling anything in its path. 

"JAILBREAK! TAKE THAT!" Cait fired his umpteenth bolt at another random target, waving his black megaphone in the air like a banner "SUCKERRRRRS! AHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHA…Ow!"

The mechanised moogle suddenly ground to a halt, nearly sending the tiny cat flying. He jerked back onto the moogle's head, replacing his crown and tightening his cape. His thin black tail swished from side to side in agitation.

-----------

_"What happened, Reeve?"_

_"I don't know! Some sort of energy field…it's cut off the computer link to the moogle!"_

_"Is Daddy going to be alright?"_

_"Daddy's gonna be fine, sweetie"_

_"Reeve, keep trying!"_

_"Cait Sith…dismount!"_

_-----------_

Cait heard the command. It was fuzzy, completely eaten up by static, but still audible. Reeve was quite clearly telling the tiny cat to dismount.

"No way" Cait muttered to himself. "No frigging way!"

**"Yes way" **the static voice came again, the words gavotting with bouts of squealed static and fuzzy, mind-numbing clamour. 

Cait muttered something under his breath and, peering uncertainly at the perilous drop from moogle to floor, began to dismount the huge white steed. Slipping down, he caught hold of the jutting purple wings and hang-dropped to safety. 

"I guess I've gotta do this alone" Cait mumbled, eyeing the long run ahead of him. He re-positioned his crown and, clutching his megaphone, toddled off, his gait that of a three year old child. The black cat ran on unsteady legs into the distance, leaving the immobile moogle and unconscious soldiers behind like anonymous calling-cards.

_She staggered, ghostly, phantasmal, a white-robed apparition tottering unsteadily through dirty grey corridors. _

_Her first thought was that she had died, and this was hell. It was this thought that stuck with her as she lurched unsteadily down the endless monochrome corridors. An eternal expanse of grey, featureless labyrinth. Her legs ached. Each step was like running red hot pokers through her heels. Her head throbbed like a rotting tooth, her throat was dry and sore, her stomach felt twisted and knotted. But she kept staggering. _

_She wanted to see the devil. She wanted to ask him why she was here, what he wanted with her. But then she realised…there was a toll to pay to get to heaven, and she simply couldn't pay it. But when it came to hell, it was a free ride all the way. _

_And as she walked, four figures slowly came into focus._

_The first was a woman. Dark, flowing hair, curvy figure, unearthly mahogany eyes that shone like red beacons in the filthy darkness. There appeared to be claws protruding from her hands. _

_Then a man, a man that walked with a hunched gait and kept reaching to his mouth, exhaling smoke at irregular intervals. Demons. They had to be._

_The third figure was the devil. She stopped walking, put a hand to her sweaty forehead, holding strands of coal-black hair away from her blurry, tired eyes. He was the devil, swathed in red velvet, graced with a mane of thick hair that was blacker than the blackest night. Like the woman, his eyes were an otherworldly red, shining like tiny, beady beacons in this impenetrable gloom. But his eyes weren't rich mahogany, like those of the she-demon. No, these were blood red, burning into her own eyes, searing her very soul in their fearful intensity. A golden claw protruded from the blood red velvet, crudely fashioned fingers slicing the air as they flexed. _

_And with the devil…a dishevelled looking man that, if she hadn't been dead, she would have guessed was Tye. But it wasn't. Tye was alive, and the man there was merely a puppet._

_She wasn't afraid._

_"I know you're the devil" she said, voice shaky and feverish yet coldly sane. "I know you've come for me. You can put your puppet away, I'm not going to struggle"_

_Then the male demon opened its mouth, letting out a stream of smoke._

"Jeez" _it said, _"She's asleep at the fuckin' wheel there"

_"I know you've come for me, devil" she said again, her voice trailing off into a dry-throated whisper "Take my soul and let Tye go. Take it now"_

_Then her world turned black, and the devil stood and stared._

"Juvi! Juvi!"

Tye, who until then had been standing, gobsmacked, ran a few paces forward and knelt before the collapsed apparition. He'd recognised her straight away…but her talk of devils had left him more than a bit afraid. Who was the devil? What was she talking about? 

"I knew she was sick" he said, more to himself than anyone else "I knew they were fuckin' with her! Juvi! Juvi, can you hear me?"

One rough hand pushed gently at her pale, ashy face. Her head lolled loosely to the side, eyes rolled up so far that Tye could only see the whites as they leered up at him. Black hair was slicked to her sweaty face, great tendrils of wavy, choking black. In a fit of irrational superstition, he pushed it away.

"Dead girl walking" Cid commented dryly, not a single ounce of care in his tone. 

"Tye?" Tifa managed to utter.

The redhead turned, expecting some sort of comforting comment.

Tifa said nothing, staring in mixed horror and sympathy at the wrecked girl laying in a heap at Tye's feet. Cid took a casual puff of his cigarette and said nothing.

Vincent merely grinned.

"She thought I was the devil" he said, voice laced with a wretched sort of amusement.  

_Asuka, I'm so sorry but I just had to use your 'five year old kid' analogy. It described Tye so perfectly! All credit for that particular line goes to Asuka _^_^ 

_Okay, no Reno/Yuffie there, but I felt that I'd neglected the others, so I thought I'd let everyone know just what they're up to. I especially enjoyed writing the Cait Sith parts! Few people ever expand on his character so that left me so much scope to mould my own character. And I'm quite pleased with the results. Cait is so cute and I felt he needed a bit of exposure in this fic, so that's what I did. I think I might give Cait some more 'airtime' so to speak. Any objections? _

_Okay then…'Ballad Of Chasey Laine' and 'Lowrider' belong to the Bloodhound Gang and War respectively. Thanks to Joy Blue and everyone else who's been following this from the start. I know I said I'd finish this by Chapter 30 but…I don't know if I will be able to! My heartiest apologies, I will try my best to keep this interesting!_

_Poetry/art requests to TioRankP@hotmail.com or visit www.geocities.com/tiorankp/tiosquare.html_

_Thanks again!_

TIO ^_^

Roll on Chapter 23-'In The Cold Light Of Day' (More Reffieness, Cait Sithiness, Rude and Elena-iness and the preliminary sparks of a potential Vincent romance…*cackles madly*) 


	23. Chapter 23-In The Cold Light Of Day

Chapter 23-In The Cold Light Of Day

****

_'Don't ask him, he's about as useful as a chocolate fireguard'_

_Cid Highwind_

_'What does it mean to you?_

_For me, it's something I'd just do_

_I want something…I need to feel the sickness in you_

_I feel the reason as it's leaving me, no, not again_

_It's quite deceiving as I'm feeling the flesh made me bad'_

_"Make Me Bad"_

_KoRn_

"Our experiment is getting away, Brynne"

Gray swivelled round to face the behemoth of a man standing before her, looking for all the world like a scolded child. A big, scary, hard-faced child…but a child regardless.

"We have managed to slow down the progress of the moogle by employing a static field in the area he was loose in, therefore cutting off outside influences and slowing its progress" he informed "It will be a while before it finally reaches Strife, and by then I hope to have gathered enough firepower to blast it off this planet"

Gray's face contorted in anger, and she slammed a fist down on the panel before her in an expression of frustration. Her eyebrows became two vicious slashes and she suddenly looked…damn frightening.

"I don't give a fuck what you do with the moogle!" she roared shrilly, face turning a strange shade of purple. Flecks of rabid spittle escaped her bitten lips "I need our experiment back! What do you propose to do about that, Brynne?"

"I'm sorry, Loki" Shinoda apologised, shuffling nervously. There was more than a hint of fear in his voice. "What would you like me to do about it?"

"I'd like you to retrieve her" Gray suddenly switched from viciously angry to dangerously calm, taking another dainty bite out of her tuna sandwich. "I'd like that very much, Brynne"

"Okay. What are the co-ordinates?" Shinoda squinted at the grid behind Gray's petite frame, staring at the tiny coloured blobs that represented their captives as they slowly travelled across the black grid.

"Y: 23 X: 67" Gray informed, her tone cold, businesslike, completely void of emotion. "Brynne, this girl is absolutely vital to our experiment. She is our guinea pig. And you know…if you fail, Brynne…I have your daughter right in the next room"

Gray's tiny smile spread, became an ugly gash in her once beautiful face. Her nose, though clean and no longer bloody, was a raw mass of churned skin and ruptured, swollen cartilage. It was ugly. She was ugly. 

"You know I can kill her. I'll hand her to Murdoc, Shinoda. I'll hand her right over without a second thought. So you best go and get our experiment, honey"

Shinoda shifted his prodigious weight from one foot to the other, regarding Gray's gashlike smirk with burnt ember eyes. He knew she was not bluffing, and that frightened him. Gray could, and very happily would hand Korei to Murdoc the moment he made a mistake. After all…she had her little army of freaks, she had her dedicated assassin squad. 

Korei just happened to be the icing on the cake.

"I won't fail, Loki" Shinoda promised, hoping for all he was worth that he was making an accurate prediction.

"Good" Gray's gash smile widened "No Juventa, no Korei. Simple as. Now go" she pressed a button on the panel before her, and without comment, Shinoda was gone.

"Shawn!" she called sweetly, waving the half-eaten flag of her sandwich in the air. "Shawnie! Shawnie baby, I'd like another sandwich please!"

The tired, cold, ragged ninja awoke to the wonderful dawn chorus of a violent street fight.

Smashing bottles and kamikaze screams heralded her arrival into the world of the waking. Groggily, she pulled her face out of the pillow and, blinking slowly a few times, attempted to focus on the room around her.

The first thing she saw was the smear of grey-green mud streaking up the faded powder-blue wall. Cheerful.

She shook her head stiffly. Turning her sore neck, she managed to focus on Reno's still sleeping form…a far more pleasing sight, Yuffie thought. His whole body was cloaked in that thin, scratchy blanket apart from a lone squirrel's tail of flaming hair that lay nonchalantly on the pillow. Yuffie found herself briefly wondering how on earth he was breathing under the blanket, but her thoughts (and, indeed, her breathing) were momentarily distracted by the glassy tinkle of a window smashing.

"Shit!" came a feminine scream from outside. The sounds were all but muted by the woefully inadequate window. Yuffie groaned, rolling onto her back and feeling all her aches and pains leap on her in one vicious attack. Her leg seized up. Her head started to pound. Her sides began to ache. Her throat suddenly took on the texture of sandpaper. She swallowed hard. It felt like swallowing staples.

"Bollocks" she muttered under her breath. She flopped listlessly back onto the pillow, closed her tired, heavy eyes, and started to slowly sink back. 

And then the police siren began to whine, and she knew that she was not going to get back to sleep. Thankfully, she was not alone. The wavering "weeeeeeee…waaaaaaaaaoooowwwww" of the siren had apparently torn Reno from his sleep too, and as Yuffie watched the redhead kicked the blanket off him, sending it floating like a giant feather to the floor. His half-naked body was still for a few moments longer before he turned, creaking just as badly as she had. His eyes were half-lidded pools of dulled yet beautiful liquid mako, peering at her through the watery, early-morning light. Tendrils of tangled hair hung limply in the way of his eyes and nose. 

"Mornin' beautiful" Yuffie grinned.

"Mornin' yourself" Reno replied testily, looking away and rubbing his eye with the ball of his hand. "Oh my god. What time is it…?"

Yuffie peered at the wood-rimmed wall clock that hung at a questionable angle. She could distantly work out the positions of the hands…"Half past seven"

"Ohhh…." Reno placed both hands over his eyes and flopped back down on his pillow. "Fucking siren…"

"There was a bottle fight," Yuffie said, suddenly realising how stupid she sounded. Her voice was croaky and not much more than a raised whisper. And her pitiful lack of knowledge of the way the 'other half' (as her father had called them so long ago, back when Wutai stood proud and noble like the graceful carvings overlooking it from the mountainside) lived was becoming a hindrance…not to mention an irritation for her redheaded friend.

"Oh" he said, as if this was wholly unremarkable. The coldness of his frigidly beautiful Mako eyes, so at odds with the rest of his highly-strung ways, was the first thing that set Yuffie remembering the events of last night.

His eyes hadn't been cold then. Far from it. They had been alive, penetrated to an unfathomable depth by an emotion Yuffie had never seen before. And…it had frightened her. The cold, frosty beauty of his eyes that night hadn't been limited to their unearthly colour…no, that emotion, that feeling that Reno couldn't, and hadn't tried to hide from her had lent his eyes a warmth, the likes of which Yuffie had never even seen in Aeris' eyes when the beautiful Ancient had been alive. And when he kissed her back…there had been that doubt, that cruel, cold voice in the back of her head telling her that she was stupid, that Reno had no interest in a dumb little teenager, that he was only comforting her because her tears and nightmares were inconvenient…but he had responded, and she could not recall the feelings that had rushed through her then, much less put words to them.

Love may have been the closest word.

Yuffie scolded herself. One lousy kiss and she was head over heels. How utterly pathetic. His eyes were cold now, completely unemotional, even when looking directly at her. And that hurt her. She decided to quickly change the subject and instead watched as Reno struggled to pull his shirt on. He groped blindly to find some kind of opening in the grey material. Finding one at last, he pulled it over his head, only to find that he was actually trying to fit his head through the armhole. With a quick exclamation ('Tsh!') he pulled it back off, aggravating already riotous red hair into a huge mass of snarled locks.

"Need help?" Yuffie commented, amused.

Reno looked up at her through a thin 'fringe' of messy auburn hair, eyes narrowed, thin eyebrows brought together into a frown. 

"Not funny" he said candidly.

Yuffie shook her head, pushing herself out of bed and realising that she had foolishly slept fully clothed. The result? She felt even more grimy and disgusting than before. Elena's sweater was now a yellow-grey colour thanks to all that leftover nicotine she'd been surrounded by all night. The jeans, too, were disgusting…the ankles were crusted with nauseous grey-green mud and they were stained up and down with dubious substances. Yuffie shivered. She didn't even want to consider their origins.

"Reno?" she asked.

Reno, who had finally triumphed over the shirt, peered up at her, prompting her to continue.

"I just wanted to apologise for jumping on you last night"

Reno looked faintly amused. "Is that what you call it in Wutai? Here in Midgar we call it 'molesting;" he commented with a grin, pulling his hair out of its plait and using his fingers as a makeshift comb to smooth it down. "No, seriously…why are you apologising?"

"Because I shouldn't have done it," Yuffie answered quietly, looking at her hands as she nervously picked at a hangnail. 

Reno watched her for a short while, and a horrible realisation swept through him, cold and bitter as a Great Glacier winter. She was regretting what had happened. She had woken up, and in the cold light of day had realised that she'd been stupid, that what they'd done was wrong.

"So…you regret it then?" Reno enquired softly.

"No, but…" Yuffie stopped picking at her nail and looked up at him, lilac eyes wide and plaintive "Reno, I'm so sorry! I know…I know that you haven't even got the time of day for a stupid little girl like me, and you shouldn't have to pretend that you do just so we can get along. I'm really, really sorry…"

"And why do you think that?" Reno interrupted suddenly, voice cold and very businesslike. Yuffie almost recoiled. She was getting all stupid and emotional, and she'd offended him in the process.

"Because…because…" Yuffie suddenly realised that she had no real, rational reason for her accusation. It had just occurred to her in a moment of foolish paranoia. And here she was, blurting it out to Reno, who was obviously hurt.

"Is it so hard to believe that someone could actually care about you?" he asked softly, not angry, not offended, just a little hurt. "Yuffie, I know that in the past you've been hurt by your friends…but I'm not about to do the same. I'm a lying, cheating, scummy little street urchin, but I'm not going to hurt you. Not anymore"

Yuffie looked at him with wide, childish eyes, fear and hurt still lingering. And then Reno smiled gently. 

"Well, maybe the odd whack round the head, but that's about it"

Despite the overriding feeling of paranoid sorrow, Yuffie couldn't help but grin back. His smile was contagious, the sort of smile that made her feel cheerful. A goofy, endearing smile that, although seemingly out-of-place on Reno's serious, lean visage, seemed so right when put with those winning blue eyes.

"You do that, Reno Lozano, and I will stick my Conformer in a very painful place"

Reno shook his head, mock-wincing.

"Save your spite for Gray" he told her warmly, standing up and combing his hair back into a loose ponytail. "Get ready to head back. We're gonna kick ass, princess"

"Sure thang, street urchin"

For Cait Sith, following directions was a fairly tricky business.

After all, he'd been running independently for two whole years now, not needing Reeve's constant input to function. And now, in the wake of his poor moogle's demise, following Reeve's instructions and running on his own initiative was a hard task. Not only did he have to toddle aimlessly around, trying to work out where the former Shinra exec was telling him to go, he had to be aware of what was around every corner…for something as small as him, everything was threatening. Especially without his beloved moogle for backup. 

Tiny feet carried the diminutive one down those oh-so-long corridors. He was beginning to tire now; the corridors weren't especially long in human terms, but Cait was very un-human. There was also that small problem about his height…or lack thereof. His legs were tiny and were not made for running, hence the stiff-legged, babyish gait he'd adopted for his impromptu pilgrimage. As he ran, one hand would occasionally snake up and push his crown back in its allocated position between his pointy ears.

_'~Left~' _Reeve's voice commanded in Cait's head, so quiet that only the cat could hear. Cait winced at the static rushing and crackling through his mind, sparking off little stinging sensations in his paws and ears. If only there were some way that Reeve could communicate which wouldn't leave him feeling like someone had stuffed party poppers in his ears and detonated them. 

And then somebody made that pain in his head marginally worse with a swift boot to the skull.

"Ow!" Cait squeaked, his helium tone echoing eerily down the dark corridor. He rolled over a couple of times before coming to an abrupt, graceless halt on his back, crown displaced, cape askew.

"Whoa! A beanie baby!" came a loud male voice from behind him.

"No" came another male voice, this time slow, deep and bored-sounding. "Not a beanie baby. A Cait Sith model"

"The Cait Sith model!" the little cat squeaked indignantly, rolling back onto his feet and turning to face his antagonists, getting ready to fry them all with a shot of Bolt 2.

Then he saw that his 'antagonists' were none other than Vincent, Tifa, Cid, and some redheaded guy who seemed to be cradling an unconscious woman in his arms. 

"Why'dya kick me in the head?" he cried angrily, rubbing his sore cranium as if to prove a point. He grabbed his crown from where it lay, forlorn and forgotten on the floor and replaced it atop his head. "I'm tryin' to follow directions and you kick me in the friggin' head! Thanks!"

"Forgive me" Vincent said dryly, staring down at Cait Sith blankly "It's somewhat hard to see below my own knees"

Cait Sith's mouth formed what might have been a scowl "Fine. So I'm not the only escapee, then?"

"No" Tifa said apologetically, leaning over a little so she could see Cait a little better "We all got out. So did Rude, Elena, Nanaki, Yuffie and Reno…but they're all scattered around the place. And being trapped in here is like being trapped in some sort of maze. All the pathways look the same, so it's hard to tell where you've been and where you haven't" she glanced up at the still, mute gunman who was busy examining his surroundings, taking in every chink in the wall, every mark on the floor "Unless you're Vincent, of course"

Cait Sith nodded, taking this information in. "Damn" he said, "Thought I was special. Never mind" 

"Well, it's good to see you out-and-about, even if you don't have your moogle with you" Tifa's gaze softened, became sympathetic "What happened to it?"

"Some sort of electric field cut off the controls from Junon" he answered sadly, suddenly grieving for his moogle "I can still receive commands, but it just stopped functioning. So, I had to go by foot"

"Poor thing" Tifa smiled gently. "Does Reeve know where we can find the others?"

"That's what he's been telling me" Cait informed, "But the static field kind of muffles the messages. So I can't hear them properly, and they hurt like hell when they come through" unconsciously, a tiny hand rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head, that little cavity between his skull and his neck where uncomfortable pressure was building in anticipation of the next radio command. "But Reeve knows where Cloud is"

"I guess we've got a new map, then" Tifa smiled. Then, quickly "That is, if you don't mind, Cait"

"Not at all" Cait dismissed. Then his shiny green eyes travelled to the redheaded guy cradling the dark-haired woman. He was staring at Cait incredulously, amazing blue eyes widened in an expression of absolute amazement. It seemed that he'd never seen a walking, talking 'beanie baby' such as this one before.

Cait eyed the unconscious woman dubiously. "Whoa, what happened to her?"

"Oh don't ask him" Cid sighed automatically "He's about as much use as a chocolate fireguard"

Tye's surprised blue eyes suddenly darkened into a piqued glare "Oh why don't you leave me alone?" he said tetchily, his tone that of a tired, ratty child's "Please, I'm really not in the mood"

Cid regarded him coldly "Just statin' facts" he said innocently, taking a few directionless steps around, presumably to kill the boredom creeping up on him. Then, turning to Cait "She went a bit psycho and told Vince he was the devil"

Cait bit his lip to keep from laughing. Ordinarily, such an accusation wouldn't be especially funny. But this was Vincent…a man convinced that he'd sinned enough to earn him a lifetime membership to the Satan Club. Anyway, it wasn't like the accusation would bother the towering gunslinger…one quick look up into his impassive, cool face was enough to confirm that.

"She didn't know" Tye said fiercely, wiping the smirks from both of their faces in one blow. He cradled Juvi closer to him, far more protective of her in her unconscious state. He could feel the fever baking off her into his own skin "She's sick, so don't slag her off!"

"Jesus kid" Cid commented casually, fumbling in his pocket for the last cig "I wasn't slaggin' her off!"

Tye gazed at him, eyes narrow, expression angry "Good"

"When do you think they'll be back?"

"Who knows?"

Josephyne 'Jo' 'Joey' 'Joanne' Avison decided it was probably best not to continue attempting conversation with the bald Turk. After all, he was a close friend of Reno's, and probably resented her presence and the feelings it had stirred in his cohort. So she let him alone, watching as he held the petite blonde close to him, wrapping her in the protective cocoon of his strong arms. If it had been anyone else, she might have smiled. He looked ready to fight for her.

Instead she turned to the lion-like beast. It had been pacing the length of the room silently, nose to the floor, following scents that led him round and round in pointless circles. A dull activity, Jo thought, but for the beast, it might well have been a welcome distraction.

And Jo craved for distraction at this moment in time.

"Hey…er…excuse me?" she addressed the beast directly, trying her hardest to get its attention. It worked. The creature looked up at her slowly, blinking one amber eye slowly as it seemingly stared her down. 

"Yes?" it answered politely. Its voice was so deep and guttural yet so polite and refined. It was weird enough that the animal was talking, let alone in such a polite manner,

"Er…well…I was wondering…" she reached up, rubbed the bruise on her cheek…the one Reno had left her with after knocking her into the filing cabinet. She'd been so afraid then…knowing what Reno could do to her…feeling all his weight, all his anger and emotion concentrated on her, seeing the maelstrom of rage and sadness in his eyes as he stared her down, feeling the tension of all his muscles as he pinned her down, screaming from his very heart.

It had been…disturbing.

"Wondering what?" the beast had obviously sensed her discomfort and had set about distracting her. 

"Er…well…how is it that you can talk?"

The beast grinned, or at least offered his own version of a grin, teeth bared, amber eye twinkling almost merrily "Ah, the age old question. I can attribute that to the fact that both my parents could speak, as could their parents before them. And more than that, even I do not know. Perhaps my species is exceptionally intelligent. Perhaps our abilities to speak and comprehend the human language are the result of some freak experiment, much like Valentine's ability to change shape in the face of danger"

"Is Valentine the man in red?" Jo asked.

"One could call him that," The beast answered sagely "However I think he would take exception to being addressed as a 'man'"

"He's not…human?" Jo seemed vaguely horrified, her bruised face contorting into one of surprise and something akin to dismay, an expression only heightened by the beast's apparent amusement.

"He would have you believe that" the beast answered, emitting a short burst of sharp, low coughing sounds which Jo supposed was laughter "He has a few inhuman prosthetics…his arm, for instance, and his muscles, but he is human. He believes himself to be some sort of hideous demon, but really he is as human as, say, you or Tifa" he shook his head, rattling the earrings that hung loosely from one torn ear "It's a shame, really, that he cannot see beyond those prosthetics of his"

Jo nodded in agreement.

"It's all down to Lucrecia, you see…" the beast shook his head "Never mind, that's another story entirely, one I'm sure you'll hear at a later date. I trust you are staying with us?"

"If I'm wanted" Jo cast a sidelong glance at Rude, who was holding Elena and ignoring all that was around him. He was worried, and thanks to that old Turk pride, didn't dare to admit it.

"Pay no heed to him" the beast dismissed "He does not mean to be so standoffish. He is merely worried about the girl. And as for Reno…" he scanned her face, looking for any signs of upset at the mention of his name. There was none. The girl was strong "…well I'm sure he will come to terms sooner or later"

"So…you actually want me to stay then?"

The beast once again stared her straight in the eye, frighteningly calm and composed. "You would be good for Valentine," he answered, "You see through his façade, and he knows it. He needs someone like that to bring him back down"

Jo didn't answer.

The beast broke the stareout and continued to pad up and down, his nonchalant manner assuring Jo that he was through talking. And, casting one last thoughtful glance over the injured Turk and her protector, she was too.

_Oh my god…well apologies for this chapter being so…well…bad. I'm not at all happy with it but I don't think there's too much I can do about it, so I'm going to have to pull off a brilliant 24th chapter to compensate!_

_Is there love in the air for my (and everyone else's) favourite cynical vampire? I needed to do something with Vincent as he is one of my favourite characters and I have underused him in the most criminal of ways. Same could be said for Cloud but I find him incredibly hard to work with as his character is so general…but hey, I'll try. Much more Reno/Yuffie, Elena/Rude and Cait Sith next chapter. I had no idea there were so many Reffie fans in the world! *Grins even wider and waves her 'Dedicated Reffie Fan' banner in the air with pride* Also, some very interesting revelations regarding Juvi's sickness…and of course more on Vinny!!!!_

_May I also take the time to state that the song 'Make Me Bad' (which I, ahem, stole the lyrics for the beginning of the chapter from) is an absolutely excellent song and one of KoRn's best *grins sheepishly* _

_And may I take a tiny piece of time to thank you once again!_

_Poetry/art requests to TioRankP@hotmail.com or visit www.geocities.com/tiorankp/tiosquare.html_

_Thanks!!_

TIO

Roll On Chapter 24-'Freakish'

P.S _wHIte-cHOcoLaTE_, (Formerly _sWeETLuvLygUrl?) I'm currently working on weaving your suggestion into the fic! Thank you!_


	24. Chapter 24-Freakish

**Chapter 24-Freakish**

****

_'You should know…after all, you're the father'_

_Shinoda Brynne_

_'Condemned man (condemned)_

_Convicted man (convicted)_

_Could not save my life cutting strand by strand_

_Passing it off like some kind of king_

_You don't know peace till you've had suffering_

_(I've suffered!)_

_All of your so-called resolve, but you haven't tasted pain._

_Have you ever been inside of the new masterpiece?'_

_"Solitaire/Unravelling"_

_Mushroomhead___

_'She thought I was the devil'_

They walked onwards, Cait perched on Cid's shoulders (much to the old pilot's distaste) yelling out directions and bonking Cid on the head with his megaphone each time he dared to complain. Tifa followed, being her usual passive self and not saying anything, merely observing her surroundings with little interest. Tye, who Vincent considered to be a truly intriguing individual, holding the unconscious girl like one would a baby.   

"Left"

"What?"

_BONK!!!_

"Oww! Okay, okay! Damn cat…"

_BONK!!!_

"Quit it!"

_BONK, BONK, BONK!!!!!_

"Tifa! Tell him to stop!"

"How old are you, Cid?"

Vincent ignored the muted chaos around him. The boy had bright blue eyes. Not quite as bright as Cloud's, or Reno's, but they were not naturally blue, and were identical in terms of ethereal beauty. No, there was Mako there somewhere. He walked straight, carrying the girl with no problem although with her dead weight, she must have been awkward to carry. But he wasn't having any problems…he just held her as one would a child, that crumpled mass of white gown, black hair and ashen skin. That strength was also unnatural. Vincent was sure of it. He watched as the redhead, an undeniably good-looking youngster with more brains than he chose to let on walked on, oblivious to everything around him, apart from that crumpled representation of a human being he held with the tenacity of a pitbull terrier and the gentleness of a lover. There was no way at all that anyone, no matter how strong, would be able prise the girl from him. 

_'She must have thought herself dying…I merely conform to her perception of the Devil. It means nothing, only that she interpreted me, in her fading state, as some sort of demon. It means nothing'_

Of course, it did mean something. She had confirmed what he'd been thinking all along, had justified his self-loathing. And Cait Sith's mockery of him on the matter had done naught to persuade him otherwise. He wasn't meant for this world. This realm was not ready for his amalgamated appearance. For his freakish, blood-red eyes, for his crude metal claw, for the alien heart beating irregular rhythms in his chest.

The world was not ready for something so freakish.

"Okay, now take this right"

"What? First or second?"

_BONK BONK CLANG!_

"DAMN CAT!"  
_BONK!!!_

"Cait! Cid! Grow up, both of you!"

Of course, there was always the possibility that she'd been hallucinating. Vincent had been in a semi-conscious state often enough to know that senses were heightened and dulled alternately while in such a state. His 'devilish' appearance may well have been the result of some feverish dream.

_'Don't be foolish, Valentine' _he scolded himself _'Why try and deny a stark fact?'_

But then…the other girl…what had her name been? Josephyne. Jo. She had not shied away from those unearthly, bloody eyes. Far from it…she had prolonged her gaze for longer than Vincent had been comfortable with. How was that possible? Nobody…not even Sephiroth had been able to look him in the eye without showing fear. But she hadn't been fearful. She had regarded him in the same way she would regard any other human. And that had stirred all too human feelings in him…feelings he had believed were long dead, feelings that made him realise, if only for a moment, how human he truly was in spite of his deformities. 

Vincent shook his head. Now was not the time to muse over such matters. 

"Cell block 6 is round this corner. That's where they keep their more important prisoners" Cait informed in a tinny voice from Cid's shoulders "Reeve says this is where Barret and Cloud were held, also where the girl here was held when she first arrived"

"Is it guarded?" Tifa asked. She watched as the little cat relayed her message to Reeve, watched him recoil as he received the answer in a blast of audible static.

"Yes" he said, shaking his head to clear it "Heavily guarded. Machine guns, the whole caboodle"

"Best put up your dukes, guys," Tifa said grimly. She then turned, looked directly at Tye 

"You any good at fighting?"

"I can throw a punch," Tye answered lightly.

"Then put her down and help us out," Cid replied. "Nobody's gonna steal her while your back's turned kid"

Tye glared at him, presumably for his reference to him as 'Kid'. Then, silently, he placed Juvi on the floor, her back against the wall so she rested in a sort of wilting sitting position, eyes closed, hair veiling her face.

"She will be safer there" Vincent assured him quietly, looking at the ceiling "Out of the range of their gunfire"

"And what about you, Cid?" Tifa asked. Cait Sith guessed that this sudden businesslike approach to battle was one of the many Cloud-influenced traits Tifa had cultivated during their time apart. "You're unarmed"

Cid eyed her in a typically self-assured manner "Doesn't make me useless" he answered "I c'n make use of anything I come across. If Vince takes out an armed soldier, I'll take whatever he was using. If not, I can fight just as well bare-fisted"

Tifa wanted to protest, but the old pilot was a viciously proud man and debating with him would only lead to a long, pointless standoff. Instead, she nodded silently, slightly uncomfortable with the situation. Vincent was armed. Cait had a low-level Bolt materia. The rest of them were faced with hand-combat against a bevy of armed soldiers. Tifa prayed a silent prayer that none of them would end up injured. "Okay, Cait, stay low, don't let them get to you. Vincent, stick to long-range. Tye and myself will go straight for the unarmed ones. And Cid, just do whatever you think is best"

Vincent nodded wordlessly, turning in a billow of luxurious red velvet and making his slow, casual way towards the battlefield. Tye followed, the tiny black cat sticking close to the heels of his large desert boots.

Cid eyed her narrowly for a long time, chewing absently on something that might not even have been there.

"Sure thing, Cloud" he said sarcastically. Then, without further utterance, he turned on his heels and followed the path the dark gunslinger had taken a moment or two before.

Tifa pretended not to be hurt by this. That was the second time somebody had accused her of acting like Cloud. She wouldn't have minded, but Cid and Reno had made it sound like it was a bad thing…maybe she was being too leaderlike? Maybe she was being a bit over-zealous…?

Then the sounds of rapid machine-gun fire accompanied by a loud, surprised yell (presumably from Tye) assured her that she didn't have any more time to muse.

"Hang on!" she called, rushing round the corner and straight into the open battlefield. They had walked into what looked like a huge aircraft hangar, an empty expanse of soulless concrete and corrugated steel punctuated here and there by the odd water-tank or whatever. At one side was a thin, frail looking fellow manning the bulkiest machine gun Tifa had ever seen. A swarm of identically-clad soldiers immediately dashed for her, having surrounded the gunslinger and chased Cid behind gas-tank. Tifa suddenly ducked, dodging a whizzing bullet, and made a panicked dash for the feet of the lead gunner. Grabbing his ankles, she tugged at the thick leather of his boots and finally sent him toppling backwards, crashing into another hapless recruit who had been behind him. His gun clattered to the floor, useless and alone. Cid quickly snaked out of his hiding place, grabbing the light black rifle and pointing it at the soldier, who was scrambling to his feet, suffering from hurt pride more than anything else.

"Come near me" he warned, staring up at the flustered recruit from his grovelling position "And I will blow your brains right out your asshole. Okay?"

Tifa shook her head. The other soldiers who had attacked her had momentarily stopped their gunfire to help their captain back to his feet. This was just enough time for the brunette to have released a rush of punches into the prone stomach of one of the gawping recruits, the spines of her Premium Heart tearing at the thick, reinforced cloth of his uniform. Hard leather made contact with soft stomach and she took him down with ease, nearly carried forward by her own momentum. She scarcely had time to catch her breath before another armed idiot swung the butt of his gun at her. Her mahogany eyes widened and, with a breathless gasp, she jerked her neck back stiffly just in time to avoid the full brunt of the blow. The cool metal skimmed her, tearing through the soft skin at the very top of her left temple. Tifa felt a brief stinging sensation, surpassed by the ache in her neck, an ache created by the sudden jerking motion she'd used to dodge the blow. Throwing her body forward, she drove her knee into the groin of her assailant, reaching up with her powerful arms and grabbing dual handfuls of his hair. She tugged viciously, pulling him down, digging further with her knee and balancing precariously on the other foot. She heard his squeal, felt every muscle in his body tense as she fought. As soon as she felt him slacken, she let go, threw him to the ground in a spiteful, breathless motion, watching with sickened satisfaction as he writhed and wept like a child.

"Tifa!" Cid yelled suddenly, and she felt the pilot's hands pull her back, through the air, just as the butt of another gun came swinging at her. She felt herself fall, cold air rushing at her, Cid's rough hands pulling her shoulders this way and that in a frantic bid to drag her to safety. With a painful bump she landed, sprawled on the floor, and Cid quickly dragged her behind the gas tank.

"They can't get to you here" he said "If they shoot this, the whole damn place goes to hell"  

At the same time, Vincent was dealing with his own little army. Dodging bullets with almost frightening ease, the tall gunman dashed behind a huge pipe. There was the hollow _PING! _of a bullet rebounding off the reinforced steel. Then, in one graceful, fluid movement, Vincent leapt out from his hiding place, firing a single bullet, which didn't fail him. It thudded hollowly into the chest of some unknown, unnamed, unimportant soldier, ending his life in a burst of vile bone jelly. The soldier fell back, spine folding in an unnatural manner as he fell backwards onto the concrete, grey uniform flourished with a tiny flower of deepest crimson.

Distracted momentarily, the soldier manning the huge machine gun at the left side of the room ceased fire and gawped for a second at the fallen soldier. This was enough time for Tye to have crept up behind him. With a yell, the redhead fastened his arm around the soldier's throat, folding it so that he could no longer breathe. Kicking furiously, he clawed and pulled at the constricting appendage, digging in with his blunt, bitten fingernails and gouging out tiny chunks of pale flesh. Tye pulled his arm tight, snapped it towards him in a single violent motion, and the clawing seized, the hands stopped scrabbling and groping, the legs stopped flailing and kicking. Gunfire began to rain down upon him and he instinctively dropped his victim, letting him fall uselessly to the floor, another unnamed soldier who would never receive posthumous praise, but would be committed to a pauper's grave with the others. Tye ducked behind the protective armour of the huge robotic gun, placing two hands over his head and watching as a hail of tiny bullets whizzed above him. He could feel the heat of the slugs as they passed close to his hands, felt one sear his skin as it flew by. Then there was a loud, dry crack, and the number of bullets passing by his shaking hands suddenly lessened. Tye guessed Vincent must have put a stop to another anonymous henchman. 

"Hey!"

A tiny, hissing voice broke Tye from his thoughts. Keeping his head down, he twisted his head so he could see who was addressing him.

The little black cat from earlier crept up, crawling on hands and knees, and tucked himself behind the machine-gun with the redhead. Little black eyes peered up at him, questioning.

"Need a little help?" it asked.

At any other time, Tye would have sat around gawping at the sight of a living, breathing stuffed toy. But not with freshly-fired slugs whizzing past his head, so close that he could feel the heat, feel them singe the hairs on the back of his hands. 

"If you're offering it," he answered carefully.

The cat gave him an open-mouthed, toothy grin, and Tye could have sworn that those teeth were real. "Okay. Watch"

Tye watched. And as he watched, the cat began to give off tiny, emerald green wisps, wisps which suddenly gathered, became a beautiful aura, trailing off into pale, mint-green nothingness. And then there came the sound of an electrical surge, the fizzing, crackling sound of a wayward lightning-bolt accompanied by a mortified yell and the cease of yet another stream of bullets.

"You have Materia?" Tye asked, and Cait thought he could detect a hungry gleam in the man's eyes. It was like watching Yuffie's eyes on the mention of Materia.

"Yeah" Cait nodded. "But you can't have it!"

Tye looked visibly disappointed. "Okay" he answered. And then a slug came whizzing past, skimming the surface of his left hand, and he ducked down again, shaking his injured appendage in front of him, releasing a sprinkle of bright blood. He could hear the laboured breathing of the soldier behind him, the soldier he had taken down a few moments before. Not quite dead, but getting there. He manoeuvred his foot so he could push the prone body away from him a little. Being this close to a cadaver in the making was discomforting. 

"Flesh wound, flesh wound" he assured himself through gritted teeth, staring at the thin slit in his hand. Then, he grabbed the line of ammunition half-fed into the mouth of the gun. He pushed them in, feeding the rest of the ammunition into the hungry, gaping maw. He pulled back the lever and nearly jolted out of his skin as it thrummed into life, spewing out a steady stream of bullets. Tye felt his teeth rattle as the machine shook and spasmed with the release of bullets, creating a hellish din in his head along with the periodic yells of wounded soldiers. Added to this were the loud, dry cracks of Vincent's Buntline as he emptied the gun into a few hapless henchmen. And then he stopped.

The stream of bullets had stopped. He stood up, steadying himself, seeing the tiny cat rise to its feet from the corner of his eye. His blue eyes scanned the vista before him. Ten or so soldiers, dead or wounded and crawling.

"I thought you said this was heavily guarded?" Tye questioned, wrinkling his nose "Ten soldiers and a machine-gunner?"

"Reeve said it was heavily guarded" Cait answered smartly. "I had no idea"

Tifa, Cid and Vincent stood near the doorway. Cid, armed with a light black assault rifle which looked clumsy and somehow _wrong_ in the arms of the old pilot. Tifa, nursing a graze on her left temple. Vincent, stoic as always, examining the dead and wounded before him.

Tye was expecting some sort of praise. 

"Damn kid" Cid grumbled, "Never got a chance to fire this thing thanks to your little display"

A low, rumbling voice from the doorway.

"Fire away, pilot"

Tifa, Vincent and Cid turned, instinctively adopting defensive positions. Cait ducked. Tye's eyes narrowed.

Shinoda Brynne, cradling the unconscious Juvi, offered his patented shark grin.

"Put her the FUCK down!" Tye bellowed, turning the heavy, bulky machine gun with an audible squeal to face the huge man. He merely widened his smile. Juvi looked like a tiny child in his huge arms, a tiny slip of a white-robed apparition. 

"You beat up eleven men" Shinoda bowed his head in mock praise "Congratulations. Thanks to you, eleven families will be going hungry for a long while. Thanks to you, eleven little wives will have to dig for supper"

"Shut up" Cid snapped, raising the gun a little "I'm guessing you're the head honcho here?"

"That would be correct" Shinoda agreed, "Although I wouldn't use that particular term"

There was a brief click as both Cid and Tye prepared to fire.

Shinoda shook his head "Shoot me, and you will almost certainly terminate the life of the young lady" he told them coolly, shaking Juvi a little. The girl lolled loosely to the side, hanging bonelessly from his huge, cocooning arms. "And, for that matter, the life of her child. And that would be a heartless thing to do, wouldn't it?"

"What child?" Tye's tone was no longer angry but outright suspicious. He released the trigger, got slowly to his feet. "What do you mean? What have you done to her?"

"You should know…" Shinoda dropped his head. The light painted thick grey shadows beneath his careless onyx eyes, eyes that focused emotionlessly on Tye's coldly furious face "After all…you're the father"         

Cid's head snapped round, faded blue eyes focused in incredulous surprise on Tye.

"I never touched her!" Tye blurted automatically.

"You didn't have to" Shinoda dismissed, his tone suggesting that Tye was a complete idiot. "We used a simple medical procedure, the very same used for the artificial insemination of millions of childless couples. You and the girl were completely unconscious, so it's granted that neither of you will remember" he lifted his head again, the shadows disappearing as quickly as they had come. "You, Tye. You have the blood of the Cetra coursing through your veins. Diluted as it is, it is enough to make a significant difference. Especially with Number One Hundred…" a hungry, predatorial gleam lit up his flat obsidian eyes, sunk and hidden in the coffee-coloured skin of his face. "I see you are all beyond words. I expected an insolent remark from at least one of you. Tye, perhaps, or the cheerleader with the ridiculous goggles. So much the better"

"They are PILOT goggles," Cid said through gritted teeth.

"And do you really think that concerns me?" Shinoda replied, lowering Juvi to the floor. He leaned over, great tree-trunk legs bending ever so slightly as he gently placed the girl on the concrete.

"I will bargain with you," he said.

"No fuckin' way" Tye replied quickly "I'm not bargaining with you. Give Juvi back now or I'll kick your fucking face in…"

"Promises, promises" the great man interrupted, voice a booming tenor. "Reynolds, surely it is better to make a safe deal with me than to try and kill me. You want her back in one piece, do you not?"   

Tye said nothing. His eyes were narrow, dark, expression wary, eyebrow ring glimmering briefly in the overhead light. 

"The child. The child is all I want, Tye" 

Tye deliberated.

"The child is all we need" Shinoda repeated earnestly, eyes full of dark promise. "You can stay here with here, take care of her. But when the child is born, we will take it"

Dark obsidian eyes burned into pale sapphire. "Do we have a deal?"        

Thin, pale lips contorted to form a single syllable.

"No" 

And with no further warning, Tye launched himself forward, booted feet flying across the concrete. Shinoda ground to a halt, and Tye threw a haphazard punch with his right hand, aimed on shattering every bone in his square-set face. The huge behemoth dodged it with graceful ease, sidestepping a little so that the momentum of the punch threw Tye right past him, suffering more from wounded pride than anything else. Tye felt Shinoda's huge, bunched fist connect with his lower back, sending a jagged spear of pain up his spine and into his skull, forcing his eyes to water. The force of the blow sent him skidding a few more steps forward before he came to a clumsy, staggering halt, his lower back a huge mass of throbbing agony. It felt as if someone had run a truck into his spine. It was at this instant that, sensing Shinoda's distraction, Vincent quickly knelt down, scooped up the girl, and backed off again.

Infuriated, Tye stumbled to his feet and suddenly ducked down, diving to the left just as Shinoda released another precision punch aimed at his head. Tye rolled and was back on his mutinous feet in an instant, heedless of the screaming, agonizing pain shooting up his spine in steady bursts. He whirled around, already lifting his hands in anticipation of another punch. And by the time Shinoda's fist had connected with Tye's own, the shorter man was on him, concentrating all his angry power into one kick.

With frightening speed, Shinoda batted his leg aside with his own knee and punched him hard in the stomach. 

All the air left Tye's lungs in a great breathless whoosh, and he felt his body swing forward, cheek grazing Shinoda's other fist as he lurched. For a stagnant moment, he felt nothing, just constricting numbness forcing his body into an unnatural hunched position. Then, in a rush, blinding, deafening pain bloomed through his taut stomach muscles, and then he felt himself fall back, hit the floor with a boneless thud, skid across the concrete like a useless rag doll. He caught a glimpse of Shinoda through the mist of his forced tears, saw the shark smile on his brutally ugly face, his fist still hanging in the air, still in the very same pose that had been his ruin. 

Darkness swallowed his vision a second before he felt the jarring impact of his body finally slamming to a halt into the wall, and he fell unconscious even as his body rolled a few inches back as he rebounded off the cold concrete.

"Stupid" Shinoda shook his head, working the tension out of his great hands by wringing them. He turned to Vincent, who was now in possession of Juvi's motionless body.

"The bargain still stands, gunslinger" he told him quietly. Those sunken black eyes met Vincent's steady ruby ones, and, as Vincent had anticipated, the great man recoiled a little. 

_'The girl Josephyne didn't shy away' _Vincent reminded himself _'Physically strong this man may be, but he is not strong in soul. Not like her'_

"The bargain was rubbished the moment the boy said so" Vincent replied just as quietly. "So please, do the intelligent thing and leave with your head held high. We are armed, unlike Tye. You will not be capable of taking us all on"

"Hand me both. The girl, and Tye. Hand me both and you will hear no more from us. But if you refuse…" Shinoda shrugged "I may be incapable of stopping you now, but it will not be long before Gray finds out. And I promise you, she will not be so gentlemanly"

"If you are truly a gentleman, turn and walk away" Vincent deadpanned.

"I have no other choice," Shinoda admitted. "But I warn you. Even if you get out of here alive, Gray will follow. She is a woman possessed"  

Vincent nodded. "So be it"

The great man offered the gunslinger a final, reproachful look. And with a heavy heart, he left. And the only thought in his mind at that moment was Korei, his beautiful daughter, whom he was now powerless to save…who had been destroyed in body and soul by Gray…

It was too late to save her. 

"He went?" Cid spluttered, "Vince, what did you say to him? He didn't even put up a goddamn fight!"

"His daughter" Vincent replied coolly "Gray will kill her if he doesn't bring back the girl. But he knows he can't win. So he has done the wisest thing"

"Which is?"

Vincent turned to Cid. "Rather than bargain with us…he is going to bargain with Gray"

"How do you know this?"

"I saw it in his eyes"

Cid shook his head and fumbled in his pocket. His cigarette packet was gone. He must have finished them and thrown the empty packet away. Damn! He folded his arms to quell the craving. "Vincent, you are one weird dude. You know that?"

"He is the Devil" Cait Sith deadpanned, and suddenly he and Cid burst into a spontaneous peal of laughter. Tifa smiled too. It may have been at Vincent's expense, but the joke had brought about a well-needed sense of relief and distraction, especially in the wake of Shinoda's bombshell.

Tye. Her thoughts suddenly turned to the redhead, who had just regained consciousness and was trying his hardest to work his way to his feet. Dizzily, he stumbled, flailed, tumbled over again, landing on his hands and knees. Tifa felt a stab of pity and knelt down, one hand on his shoulder, the other resting on the bruised flesh of his stomach in a bid to help him stand again.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

Tye shook his head. A huge bruise was blooming across one cheekbone. 

"Do you think you can stand?"

Tye shook his head again. And then a tiny sentence escaped his lips, so quiet that, against the backdrop of Cait and Cid's sniggers, Tifa almost missed it.

"I don't want to be a dad yet"

Then Tye began to cry.

Cid and Cait stopped laughing. Vincent, still holding Juvi, looked down, an expression of mild pity on his face.

The old, grizzled pilot shook his head, looking at the condemned man with obvious contempt. "Just like a damn kid" he said gruffly, scratching his nose in an absent-minded fashion.

Tifa said nothing, merely glared at Cid, who shrugged innocently, gave her an indignant look.

"What have I done?"

_Argh! I HATE action chapters! HATE THEM! But you know…I thought this one was okay. Considering the usual tripe I write when I attempt to pull off such chapters, this isn't so bad. _

_Oh no! _*gasp*_ Well there you go! I managed to both upset and knock out Tye, subdue Shinoda and still had time to get a few deadpan responses in from Vincent (well they are fun to write, _^_^_) And in five pages! Hurrah for me! Although maybe I should consider making chapters longer…or maybe not…oh, whatever. Next chapter will see the return of Reno and Yuffie _(YAY!) _the rescue of Cloud (fans of the spiky-haired one rejoice) and other random happenings probably centring around Rude/Elena/Tye/Juvi. And Vincent. It'd be a crime to leave Vinny out! Oh, and another corner added to out love-triangle…_

_Okay, thanks for the overwhelming support I've been receiving…I'm not naming names, because I fear I'll leave somebody out, and I'm sure you know who you are _^_^ _hang in there, we're entering the final quarter of the fic (AT LAST!)_

_Further comments, poetry/art requests to TioRankP@hotmail.com or visit my Chocobo Square (which is soon to be revamped) at www.geocities.com/tiorankp/tiosquare.html_

_Okay! Thanks!_

_TIO RANK P_

_Roll on Chapter 25-'To Disappear…' ___


	25. Chapter 25To Disappear

**Chapter 25-To Disappear…**

****

_'Don't speak to me. Don't even look at me. Even better…why don't you just walk yourself out that door and get the fuck off my planet?'_

_Reno Lozano_

'_I'm turning it around like a knife in a shell_

_I want to understand why, but I'm hurting myself_

_I haven't seen a lot of reasons to stop it,_

_I can't just drop it_

_I'm just a bastard but at least I admit it_

_At least I admit it!'_

_"My Plague"_

_Slipknot_

"You're sure we took the left turning?"

"Very sure"

"How sure is that?"

"Look" Long fingers pointed out the scraped pockmarks in the damp plaster "I did that. This is definitely the right way"

"Okay…" Yuffie warningly held the Oritsuru in the air for a short moment. "You'd better not be wrong, urchin"

"I won't be, ma'am" Reno performed a mock-bow, gangly arms swept beneath lanky body "Recall the mood I was in when we left. I'm very destructive when I'm annoyed"

Yuffie remembered. He had lost his temper completely. He'd leapt on Jo, tears streaming from tumultuous blue eyes, screaming obscenities and tugging at her collar, wanting to rip her head off, to tear her apart. But he hadn't. He had calmed down. And though Yuffie had known that he was still angry inside, she had to admit he'd done a good job at hiding it.

He'd taken out his pent-up aggression on the wall. Yuffie could see where blunt fingernails had scraped out damp, loose plaster in a series of gouges, which could easily have been placed on a certain young woman's face, had Reno not taken control of his temper.

"Okay" Yuffie nodded "So that must mean we're not far from Rude and Elena, right?"

"Right" Reno agreed, "As a matter of fact…we just have to walk down this here corridor…and look!"

Yuffie peered into the gloom. At the end of the corridor was a door…not just another junction leading to another set of corridors. A door, fashioned from steel with two glass panels on each one. Yuffie distantly remembered the faded blue colour…but she trusted Reno's judgement. 

The two approached the door hesitantly. If Gray had returned, it was up to them to protect the injured Elena. Rude was powerless alone, Jo was powerless full stop. Reno had guessed from the very start that she hadn't known how to use the gun she'd been brandishing. It was a hitman's instinct…the way she'd held it, her stance, everything about her manner had been scared and inexperienced. Even Elena was more confident with a firearm. Reno held his nightstick in one hand, the other bunched in a fist at his side, ready to flail out at any moment. Yuffie held the one of the thin, deadly blades of her Oritsuru between her thumb and forefinger, a casual stance only someone of her expertise could use successfully. Feeling safe in the knowledge that she had given herself all the best materia (a rather selfish safety measure) and even safer in the knowledge that she was with someone as strong as Reno, she placed one hand on the cold metal, nodded at her redheaded companion, pushed the door open with a rusty squeal.

Three pairs of eyes stared up at her. 

"You're back" Rude remarked in a strangely joyless voice. He was now resting against a crate, Elena's sleeping form stretched out beside him, head pillowed on a mass of torn, damp cardboard. There was colour in her face now, and her bleeding had stopped.

"How is she?" Reno asked.

"She's okay" Rude answered, placing a hand on the sleeping girl's shoulder. "She regained consciousness in the night. She's in pain, but she'll be fine. Josephyne had a few Potions and that seemed to help"

"Oh" Reno seemed visibly disheartened by the mention of her name. For some perverse reason, Reno would much rather Elena have battled the pain by herself than receive help from Jo of all people.

"Jo is going to stay with us" Rude informed coolly, watching as the tell-tale signs of ire began to pop up all over Reno's face. His eyes darkened, jaw set, fists instinctively bunched.

"Who decided that?" he asked quietly.

"We did" Rude nodded over to Nanaki, who slept peacefully against the wall, tail swishing contentedly. "Reno, I know you have…issues with this girl, but it's not right to shut her out. She can help us…"

"Where is she?" Reno interrupted snappily. Rude stopped talking abruptly. There were no arguments. The taller, more peaceable man shut up, jabbed a thumb to his left.

Jo stared up at him, a guilty look on her face.

"They think I can help…" she began, but stopped mid-sentence. The cold look on Reno's face had froze her, froze her words. It was a look of utter contempt, of hatred, of mistrust, of mangled, garbled feelings of hate and love that he couldn't quite decipher and pick out. 

"Don't speak to me," he told her sharply, his words quiet yet vicious. "Don't even look at me. Even better…why don't you just walk yourself out that door and get the fuck off my planet?"

Jo shook her head incredulously. "That's just like you," she said angrily, cold eyes burning into his "You think you own the world, don't you Reno? Or would it save time and effort if I were to refer to you as 'God'? Because that's obviously what you see yourself as"

"You don't know anything about me," Reno growled.

"I know you well enough to have had your bastard child" she countered, prompting a hurt, surprised look from the redhead. "Hurts, doesn't it honey? I'm sick of being nice. I've hurt you, Reno, but at least I can say I made an effort. You, on the other hand…" she shook her head, looking as if she might spit at any second "…You're just a selfish, arrogant little bastard!"

Reno was about to counter, had opened his mouth, had shaped his lips to form the hurtful words, but Yuffie's gentle hand on his arm made him think otherwise. Perhaps right now wasn't the time to embark on a swear-fest with the mother of his child. He drew back, felt Yuffie's body press against his own before she stepped back, allowing him the space she thought he needed.

"The others are yet to return" Rude commented, watching as Reno gradually began to calm down. "My guess is they've encountered trouble on their way and it's set them back a little"  

"Okay" Reno nodded, turning his back on Jo and her angry, hurt eyes and instead focused on Rude, trying to adopt his calm ambience. "So, do we wait for them?"

Rude shrugged. "We don't know where they've gone" he answered frankly "to follow them would be stupid"

Reno nodded.

"It's like they've disappeared" Nanaki lifted his head, awakened suddenly from his slumber. "I can no longer scent them…not even Cid, and the smell of tobacco is usually the most pungent"

"Disappeared, huh?" Reno commented offhandedly. _'To disappear…'_ he thought, casting a cold glance over the sullen features of Josephyne Avison _'wouldn't that be great? To disappear…to never have to hurt again…to bring all this thinking and shouting and aching to an end…'_

"Reno?" 

A small voice jolted him out of his reverie. A voice belonging to the only thing keeping him from pulling that disappearing act.

Yuffie's wide eyes, scared and upset in equal amounts, burrowed into his own. He had unconsciously allowed her, over the course of the past two days, to delve into his very soul, to uncover the filth and squalor that lurked like a rapist behind the lucid mirror of his Mako eyes. And he wasn't about to shut her out now. 

"Rude was talking to you," she said quietly, nodding towards the shaven-headed Turk (a small amount of stubble was beginning to show through on the sides of his head. Reno ran a hand over his own chin and felt small spikes threatening to become stubble)

"Do you have any potions?" he asked, running a huge yet gentle hand across the rumpled clothing of the sleeping blonde. Reno could see the dried rose of blood that had slowly stained through the thick stuff of her blazer. She had stopped bleeding now…sudden movement might change that. She needed to be healed. But he had nothing left.

"I'm sorry, dude" Reno shrugged defeatedly. "I'm clean out"

Rude's enquiring gaze fell upon the little ninja "And you?"    

Yuffie shook her head slowly. Sure, she probably had at least three Cure Materias hidden away in her armlet or popped conveniently into one of the Oritsuru's many slots, but right now looking at herself wasn't something she really wanted to do. Things were getting to her…things like Reno. Like his obvious love for Jo. Like the fact that, despite his ardent protests, she knew that he saw her as just a rebound, a little girl childishly infatuated. 

They may have been worlds apart, but there was his love for Aeris throwing a rather large spanner in the works. 

"I have a few things that might help" Jo commented quietly, almost afraid to speak should Reno snap at her again. Thankfully, he didn't. He merely stood, face contorted into that same apologetic expression, staring blankly into space. He hadn't even heard her speak.

Rude tilted his head to the side "Like what?" he asked.

"Like…I have what I think may be an Elixir" she produced, from her pocket, the packet of dried powder. The stuff that, somehow, through some unknown power, healed every injury and restored sapped magical strength. A by-product of Cetral power? Possibly. After all, it had been claimed that the items were often found in places of great magical concentration. And Aeris had always been especially adept at finding them, hidden away behind rocks. Cloud had often joked about her 'sixth sense', but Rude was sure that he'd never sat and considered all the scientific possibilities.

Not like Hojo had, anyway.

Nanaki grasped the tiny packet in his teeth delicately, careful not to pierce the thin reed-paper casing. Taking the utmost care, he traipsed over to where Rude sat, one hand on Elena's shoulder. The tall man took the packet, his great hand swallowing it up in folds of callused flesh. Then, carefully, he prised it open, taking the powder in hand and throwing it haphazardly into the air.

It worked. The powder, as expected, became a tiny burst of iridescent light, the coloured grains bursting into spontaneous, harmless flame much in the way magnesium burns in air to create fireworks. It wasn't exactly clear how this happened…the most plausible explanation so far was that the reed-paper casing acted as some sort of anti-magic barrier, and that the powder only utilised its 'magical' qualities once exposed to air. 

Whatever the cause, the powder settled on Elena's still form, the flaming grains fading as they hit her body. They seemed to be absorbed into the bloody, dirty material of her jacket as they disappeared, endowing Elena with their dying power, allowing her to absorb the antidote they contained.

"I hope that worked" Rude said finally, once all the tiny flares had disintegrated. He took his hand away from her shoulder, drawing it to his side, and discarded the reed-paper package like it was an old newspaper. It had served its purpose.

"Thank you, Josephyne" he turned to the nervous woman, an innocent-looking girl who had undeniably done Reno a great wrong. Rude could see quite easily how his friend was still hurt and infuriated. After all…suddenly discovering that the child that had supposedly been aborted before its birth was alive, well, and completely ignorant of her father's existence was quite a shock to the system. Especially in the wake of such a traumatic experience. The 'Northern Crater' incident was still fresh in all their minds, an example set to Cloud and every else that rushing into something potentially life-threatening was a dangerous thing. Yuffie and Reno had been passed off as _dead_, for Christ's sake!

Anyway, Rude noted, watching as Yuffie and Reno exchanged laughably shy glances, it seemed that Reno was busy getting cosy with that little Wutaian girl. A small smile threatened to bloom across his expressionless face as he recalled, way back in Wutai, when Reno had tried to persuade Tseng to get 'that chick with the legs' to join the Turks. Before Aeris had died. Before all this shit turned into a glutinous mess. Yuffie had turned a tough-talking lothario into a vaguely sensitive soul, and Rude was still undecided on whether this was good or not.

"You're welcome" the girl seemed absurdly pleased that her effort had been noted and praised. She cast a sidelong glance at her ex-lover, checking his reaction. There was none. Yet again, he was encapsulated in his own bizarre universe.

Josephyne Avison thought of the little girl who was living quite happily in Kalm town. Not that far away from Junon, the harbour town in which she knew Reno had recently been residing. She had known straight away that she was Reno's daughter, and everyone else who had known him had too. She had his flaming red hair, although it was neater and now came down just below her shoulders in a magma-like wave. She had her mother's cool blue eyes, but if one dared to look close enough there were random bursts of vivid aquamarine, making her irises resemble tie-died circles of muslin. And of course, her father's prodigious height was already beginning to take effect. At five, she was already taller than most of her nursery school peers, and was beginning to overtake the first years. 

God, she missed Scarlett. She was tearing up inside over proclaiming her to be a 'bastard child'. Of course she didn't regard her only baby as a bastard! Part of her…the biggest part of her, in fact, wished that she could reverse time. A tired cliché if ever there was one. But it suddenly seemed so apt. Turn back time; raise Scarlett as a normal family, with Reno…

But that couldn't happen now.

Things were too far gone.

Tye was disturbingly subdued.

Seeing him cry had been a shock. Tye, as far as everyone was aware, did _not_ cry. It wasn't his way. But…Tifa watched him walk, still cradling the girl (and, she reminded herself wryly, their unborn child) with that peculiarly cowed expression on his face. They were heading for Cell Block 6, the place where they'd hopefully recover the two missing members of their team. Cloud and Barret had been quite missed. After all, without Barret's oh-so-biting yet undeniably candid commentary they'd been walking around in some idealistic daze. Everything was going to work out great. They'd split up into two teams, storm their way round the building and be home in time for dinner. Except…that wasn't the way it'd turned out. Except that was never the way it turned out.

"I'm guessing" Cid began, gruff voice echoing uncomfortably off the bare pipework "That, seeing as the only locked cell is that one" a withered hand reached out, pointed out the biggest cell "They're gonna be in there"

"Makes sense" Tifa agreed calmly.

Not content with being proved right, Cid decided to play his trump card: sarcastic humour. "Anyway" he continued, "Barret would be too much of a pie-eating fat bastard to fit in one of the smaller cells"

This prompted not even a single smile. The ambience that hung over the group like a storm cloud was subdued, quiet, painfully reflective. Whether it was the extermination of so many men…and the fact that Shinoda had been so right _('Congratulations. Thanks to you, eleven families will be going hungry for a long while. Thanks to you, eleven little wives will have to dig for supper') _or the sudden realisation that Tye and Juvi were to be parents to a child neither were ready for, a child that could well turn out to be a grotesque experiment…it was unclear, and it didn't matter. It was time to get Cloud, get Barret, and get out.

Cid 'harrumphed' and took the lead, brandishing the rifle he'd stolen from the dead soldier as if it were his own. His footsteps clicked hollowly on the faux marble floor.

"Shoot the lock" Vincent commanded from the rear of the group, a low voice carrying over the bowed heads of his cohorts. 

"I was going to" Cid huffed. Tifa watched with a sort of amused interest as he lifted the gun to eye level (mimicking the stance Vincent always adopted when firing such a small gun) and pulled the trigger in a quick, thoughtless manner. He leapt back a few feet when the loud _SNAP _of the gun echoed directly in his ear, shocking him. 

Despite the ambience still smothering her like a blanket, Tifa found the space to smile.

Cid dropped the gun with a hollow clatter, still visibly shaken from the noise. He nudged it away with the toe of his foot and set about dismantling the padlock.

"Security" he muttered "Eleven rookie soldiers and a padlock. Good work, Gray" with a final tug he'd yanked the twisted metal away, thrown in on the floor to join the discarded rifle, began to pull the sliding metal door. There was an ear-piercing squeal as it jolted into life. Then, with a grunt of effort, the pilot finally pushed the door into its little alcove, revealing two very surprised looking AVALANCHERS.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you right now" Cloud's words had never sounded so genuine. He stood up, stretching like a newly awoken man. Then he rubbed his eyes. It seemed they had indeed just woken him.

Barret was less thankful. He ran his eyes across the small party gathered before him.

"Turks gone already?" he asked, more of a statement than a question "Seems like that ninja freak went with 'em. I always figured she'd rather wear a blue suit"

"The Turks and Yuffie are waiting for us, Barret" Tifa said calmly, used to her colleagues holier-than-thou attitude to their blue-suited helpers.

Barret nodded, though he didn't seem satisfied with her explanation. Then his gaze stopped on Tye and Juvi. Cold, black eyes scanned and scrutinised the tired, bedraggled redhead and the unconscious girl.

"And who're they?" he asked, gruff, brusque tone laced with suspicion "Looks like he's bin dragged through a damn hedge backwards"

"This is Tye" Tifa presented the redhead to him like a fabulous prize. "Please give him a chance, Barret, he's been through a lot"

Barret nodded. He was still unconvinced.

Tifa sighed. Barret wasn't going to trust Tye any time soon…he still didn't trust half the people who'd joined AVALANCHE, even after two or so years. Yuffie being the prime example. Tifa found herself considering the similarities between the ninja and Tye: it seemed quite a blessing that he was in such a quiet mood. If he were being his usual raucous self Barret would have immediately fobbed him off as another Yuffie (albeit a pretty tall, male Yuffie) 

Hadn't Cid done exactly the same? 

"Okay. Cloud, Barret, we don't have an awful lot of time" Tifa snapped out of her reverie and immediately resumed her post as 'acting leader'…a post Cloud seemed in severe danger of losing to the brunette. "Elena's been hurt quite badly, and it'll only be a matter of time before Gray comes back with her monstrosity"

Barret and Cloud offered similarly confused, blank looks.

"I'll explain later" Tifa raised her hands as if to hurry them along "The most important thing right now is getting out of here, regrouping, and then we'll consider the best plan of action"

The tall, dark man scratched the back of his neck.

"Yes ma'am" he answered.

I'm sorry for a) the length of time between this chapter and the last b) the shortness of this chapter and c) the shoddiness of it. I've been under exam pressure at the moment (Theology…not a kind subject at A level) and I guess I've not been as motivated either. Last chapter got me precious few reviews and, being the idiot I am, I took it personally and was kinda discouraged. But here you go, new chapter, if anyone wants it. Please review!

_Thanks for your patience!_

_-TIO-_

_Roll on Chapter 26-Unity_

TioRankP@hotmail.com


	26. Chapter 26Numbness

Chapter 26-Numbness

****

_'You shouldn't act like I'm the one to blame…It takes two, you know'_

_Loki Gray_

_'And I just can't seem to change_

_You lied to me…you lied to me._

_You don't even know my name._

_There is good in me._

_I am proud to love you'_

_"Gelousea"_

_InMe_

"Shit, Reno"

"What?" 

"Will you stop looking Yuffie up and down?"

"I'm not!"  
"You are!"

"I am fucking _not_!"

"You are! You've been staring at her backside for a good five minutes!"

"…It's none of your business anyway!"

Rude regarded his friend with a doubtful expression. "Whatever, Reno" he said, expression clearly stating that he did not believe him. "Look…you've had a thing for that girl for a long time…don't even say anything, Reno, let me finish" 

Reno closed his mouth. 

"Like I said" Rude's hand still lingered on the sleeping Elena's shoulder "I know you've had the hots for her for god knows how long, but I really think now isn't the best time to be gaining any kind of emotional interest" Rude's gaze landed on Jo, who was standing alone in the middle of the room. She was one of those girls who was not skinny, but had both a flat stomach and a set of impressive curves. Her face was lovely. That was really the only word for it. Artistically beautiful. Rude could see how Reno had fallen in love with her. Of course, like every other beautiful girl she harboured some dark secrets. It seemed that beauty had its price. His eyes unconsciously travelled to Elena, to her slowly healing wound. Yes, it came with a price all right. And if Jo hadn't have had that Elixir…Elena might have paid with more than just a chunk of flesh.

"You're talking shit" Reno dismissed almost angrily.

"No I'm not," Rude countered. "Come on, dude. You spent the night with that girl and honestly mean to tell me nothing happened between you?"

"Nothing happened!" Reno confirmed, slightly put out by Rude's accusation. Of course…something _had_ happened. Not quite what Rude was thinking…though it could have happened…

_'The guys would cry laughing if they found out you turned down sex, Reno'_ he told himself, watching as Rude unconsciously stroked Elena's arm. Reno felt a strange sort of happiness for his usually silent friend. Perhaps his hard work and care would pay off in the end. He was due his turn for love, anyway. And he knew as well as everyone else that Elena could make Rude the happiest guy on the Planet. 

Just like Aeris had made him the happiest guy on the Planet. 

Just like last night's kiss had made him the happiest guy on the Planet, if only for a while.

Rude offered him a strange look. Reno thought it was stupid of Rude to hide his eyes behind sunglasses all the time. When he took them off, every girl for miles around would comment on just how lovely they were. And Rude's habit of hiding them behind thick shadowed lenses had always mystified him.

"She must be special if you're waiting for her" he commented dryly, looking back down at Elena.

"Are you saying I'm some kind of whore?"

No answer.

"Rude?"

Rude gazed at Elena's sleeping face though thick sunglasses. Her earthy brown eyes were lost to hoods of pale skin, trimmed with a delicate forest of light blonde eyelashes, tinted with the remnants of two-day-old mascara. She hadn't reapplied her makeup for _two days_. Generally, the girl couldn't stand to wear the same makeup for over two hours. Even though she was wearing stale makeup and was paler than Rude deemed healthy, she still managed to look beautiful. Of course, Rude would have considered her beautiful no matter her state. He was just that kind of guy. Her body seemed so small and vulnerable in its crumpled up state, so frail and delicate. It was hard to believe that this fragile looking blonde was capable of delivering one hell of a punch.

"Rude!" Reno said sharply. The shaven-headed one looked up, shook his head.

"You callin' me a whore?" he demanded.

Rude shook his head.

"Not a whore" he corrected "A nymphomaniac"

Reno shot him a look to kill. 

"YOU FUCKING IDIOT!"

Gray's vitriolic snarl echoed hollowly down the small network of chrome-walled corridors that made up the nucleus of her little maze. Her very own office. Only a few knew the way. Her closest friends and most loyal lackeys. And Shinoda.

"You could have fucking shot them!" she continued, pitch of her voice getting higher and higher in her agitation. She paced the length of her tiny office, twitching erratically. "You could have done anything!"

"I couldn't have shot them," Shinoda explained calmly, towering above the pacing blonde. "The gunslinger was holding her. If I had shot him, I would have had to risk shooting her too" he decided to play his trump card "and I couldn't risk injuring the child"

Gray said nothing.

"What of Korei?" Shinoda questioned.

The small blonde stopped pacing and laced her slender arms behind her back. She peered up at him, a devilish look in her tarnished emerald eyes.

"You know I won't give her back," she told him clearly and steadily "You know I can't kill her. She's important to me, to my cause. But I won't give her back to you until you give me what I need" she looked the huge man straight in the eye. To an outsider, the scene would have seemed bizarre…a huge towering behemoth, built like a brick shithouse, with fists to match, being stared down and completely dominated by a relatively short, delicate-looking blonde woman. But Shinoda knew she had an advantage. Korei. The minute he touched her, the minute he hurt her, she could have Korei killed at the push of a panic button. The panic button Shinoda knew she had located on her modified Dragon armlet. That paranoid little bitch had taken every step in the book to protect herself.

And Korei was too much to sacrifice.

"So the bargain is as follows: You bring me the girl. The girl and her child" that devilish smirk crossed Gray's face again "Extra brownie points if you bring me Reynold. And in return you get Korei back. Your life back." She cocked her head to the side, devilish smile replaced by insanely cute one "I think that's a fair exchange, don't you?"

"You took my life away the moment you killed Ekata" Shinoda told her dryly.

Gray tutted. "It was for us, Shinoda" she cooed gently, the complete antithesis of her former angry self. She ran a delicate hand across his chest, long fingertips tracing the contours of his chest. Shinoda was not old…older than her twenty-three years, true, but he himself was only twenty-seven. He instinctively tensed up; she hadn't attempted to seduce him since she'd trapped him in this hellhole years ago. Not since she'd gone completely crazy, killed Ekata in a jealous rage, kidnapped Korei, not since he'd agreed to trade in his freedom for Korei's life had she even looked at him in a vaguely loving way. 

He stepped back. "Why couldn't you just have accepted that I loved Ekata more than I loved you?" he demanded, trying his best to shake off the ghosts of her finger that still lingered on his chest "Why couldn't you just have accepted that?"

Gray drew her hand back to her side "Because" she said simply. Because. That was all she ever said. It was so…_frustrating!_ There was never a reason. As far as she was concerned, there never had to be. It was always simply _because._ "Come on, Shinoda. For old time's sake"

"No" he shook his head. "No, no, never again"

She regarded him sulkily. "You shouldn't act like I'm the one to blame," she told him "It takes two, you know"

"I know" Shinoda told her.

There was a long moment of tense silence.

"If there's nothing else, Loki, I'd like to go now" Shinoda said quietly.

"The girl, Shinoda" she reminded again. "Alive"

"Alive" he confirmed.

_'Do you love him?'_

_'I don't know. Maybe'_

_'Seriously?'_

_'I don't know!'_

Snippets of self-conversation would occasionally steal back into Yuffie's dozing mind. She sometimes cursed her subconscious for ever daring to question her feelings. It led to all sorts of confusions.

_'But you might…?'_

_'I DON'T KNOW!'_

_'But you might!'_

Usually her mind would wander, begin to contemplate all sorts of things. Like how Aeris was, all alone in the Lifestream. And how her dad was. And why the Planet was round. And whether greens tasted nice to humans. And whether it was too late to learn to play the piano. But right now…there was only one thing on her mind.

If only he hadn't kissed her!

_'But you liked it, didn't you?'_

_'Of course I did!'_

_'Do you regret it?'_

_'Not at all'_

_'Not even a bit?'_

_'No. I wanted it'_

Of course she had. She had wanted it more than anything at that moment. It had started off as a sort of comfort thing, the need for pure animal comfort, the need for another human being's warmth. But that had changed. There was more to it than just plain old primal comfort. The moment she'd allowed her lips to meet his…the moment she'd allowed that to happen…that was when it had all changed. Because that was when she'd realised just what all those weird feelings and cravings equated to.

_'I…love him'_

_'So you do?'_

_'I do'_

_'Really?'_

_'Really'_

She opened her eyes, allowed them to settle on the distant form of the redhead, who was sat beside Rude, engaged in some sort of discussion. His cool blue eyes caught her gaze momentarily, and she almost looked away. She could have sworn she saw a small smile work its way across his face, but that must have been wishful thinking. The memory of his lips on hers, of his tongue probing her mouth hungrily, was fresh in her mind, and judging by the small, not unpleasant shiver that fandangoed down her spine as she recalled the memory, she'd been right. He returned her almost wistful gaze with one of his own, an unmistakeable look of longing in his eyes. 

Yuffie smiled to herself. Never in a million years had she ever thought Reno capable of being sweet like this. Then again…she'd never thought herself capable of feeling this way. All warm and fuzzy and utterly nausea-inducing to anyone who couldn't feel what she felt each time she set eyes on him.

_'Yup'_ she confirmed, closing her eyes against the harsh colour of his hair _'I love him'_

Never before had a fact been so easy to confirm. All she'd had to do was look, and she knew. 

_'I love him'_

On the other side of the room, Reno watched as the young ninja closed her eyes against his gaze.

"Reno"

Her eyes were really quite beautiful. They were what Tseng would have called 'broken eyes'…a ring of dark grey-purple on the outside, filled with a hazy, misty lilac. 

"Reno…?"

And she had those _looonnng_ eyelashes the kind that tickled when you got close. And the shape…kind of almond-shaped, but not like Tseng's. He could only assume there was something like Cosman in her bloodline…the wide grey eyes were definitely not Wutaian features…

"Reno!"

"What!?" Reno snapped his head round and offered Rude an irritated look.

"I said, do you think I should wake Laney up now?" Rude cocked his head to the side, wearing a lopsided grin that, despite looking kind of out-of-place on Rude's usually serious face, actually rather flattered his angular features. "Seems like you've got other things on your mind though"

Reno scowled. "Leave me alone, Rude" 

"Fine" Rude looked back at Elena "I will. But Reno, don't say I didn't warn you. She's very young"

_'You think I don't know that, retard?' _Reno's mind exclaimed _'You think I don't stress about that every second of the day?'_

 But he didn't say it.

He merely nodded.  

If only love were easy!

Then perhaps Tye would have been able to find it within himself to lift the bedraggled spirits of the tired, dirty, aching AVALANCHERs. But…he peered down at Juvi, at her closed eyes and swollen lips and ashen skin. She was sick. She was sick, and that…_parasite_ inside her wasn't helping at all. He had no idea just what Shinoda had done to that child. He had no idea what cocktails of drugs and genes they'd injected into the unborn baby._ His_ unborn baby. He had no idea what kind of Pandora's box had been opened.

If only…if only he didn't have _feelings_ for the crumpled mess of woman draped across his arms like a bedsheet. Then perhaps he could be indifferent about the child, indifferent about everything. But it wasn't that simple.

_'I sometimes wish I'd never met you'_ his blue eyes bored into the closed ones of Juventa Elise Darkhart, silently speaking to her. _'I sometimes wish I'd just stayed here in shitty old Midgar, with those shitty tramps and shitty…shit'_

_'If I'd never met you, I wouldn't be in this mess. I wouldn't be a father-in-the-making at twenty two years old. I wouldn't even be here. I'd be at home, eating Pot Noodles and watching grainy news bulletins on a black-and-white TV. I'd be stuck in a dead-end job in some little tin-can shop earning ten gil a week. I'd be doing night shifts at some crappy hospital cleaning up spills with a broken mop._

_I wouldn't feel so…thoroughly confused. I'd be numb'_

Numbness. If only. 

He looked across. It was weird how the AVALANCHERs arranged themselves. The dark haired woman (_Tifa? He could vaguely remember someone addressing her as 'Tifa') _took the lead, now flanked by the tall, leonine Cloud Strife _(Now there was a name he had no trouble remembering. Cloud Strife. Leader of AVALANCHE, destroyer of Sephiroth) _who was stuck to her side like a barnacle. Tye had no idea the two were 'together'. Perhaps they weren't. Perhaps he was jumping the gun a little. But Cloud looked ready to bite anything that so much as glanced at her.

Behind them trotted the huge lump of flesh and gunmetal he believed went under the name 'Barret'. Much like Cid, he seemed to be a man of little patience and even littler conversation. He just went on his clumsy way. There was something definitely fearsome about his one white eye, about the scar that crossed it like a bridge of raised flesh, about the constant look of anger and disdain about his grizzled features. Tye had already decided to give him a wide berth.

Then, towards the rear of the group were Cid and the Cait Sith creature. Cait Sith was still perched upon the pilot's shoulders, much to his endless chagrin. Although there was a certain comic relief attached to the fact that Cait Sith kept whacking him round the head with his megaphone whenever he got the chance. Tye recalled the way he'd summoned that lightning spell, and made a mental note to check out his Materia later on. Cid…he didn't even need to think about him. The old pilot, though rude, abrasive and generally cantankerous was actually rather warmhearted once one got talking to him. He'd proved that back in the 'cell' when he'd offered him a cigarette. Just thinking about the little cylinder of tobacco got him itching for a nicotine fix. He shoved the cravings to the back of his mind.

And Vincent. Vincent mystified him. He was…nice. That was really all there was to it. He wasn't a _lovely_ person, or a _wonderful_ person, or even a _kind_ person. He was a _nice_ person. Nice. Such a lukewarm word. But that was how Tye perceived him…lukewarm, not entirely comfortable around groups of people. Especially when those people seemed so intent on acting as his 'friends' He seemed content to silently lead them, his low baritone voice occasionally sounding out the directions as they walked. The man held many mysteries, it seemed, not least that innate sense of direction. It was almost animalistic.

_'I guess the best word for that guy is 'detached'' _Tye mused, turning his head slightly to catch a glance of the shadowed gunslinger. _'I guess he's got the right idea'_

But Tye couldn't afford to be detached. Absently, his hand crept up, round, rested on Juvi's creased stomach, where it lay dormant, waiting foolishly to feel the first stirrings of the parasite he'd unwittingly created.    

**_THWACK!_**

"AGH! DAMNED CAT!

Tye turned round instinctively. For the umpteenth time their progress had been halted by the fact that Cait Sith couldn't resist smacking Cid one with his megaphone. The sound of hollow metal clanging off Cid's skull was becoming annoyingly familiar.

"Do you really have to…?" sighed the long-suffering Cloud. Tye was beginning to notice certain similarities between him and the dark-haired girl _(her name is Tifa, he reminded himself)_ neither would hold an argument for too long. Neither would prompt an argument. And both adopted that world-weary tone whenever scolding someone. Which they did often.

"Yes" Cait Sith answered with a toothy grin. They caught the light for the briefest of moments, glimmering like tiny shards of china. 

_'If they're not real teeth then I'm a Chocobo'_ Tye found himself thinking before Cid shattered the quiet with a gruff exclamation.

"I am not carrying that fucking thing on my shoulders no more" he told Cloud candidly. "No way. You take him"

Cloud shook his head. "No way" he said "Barret can take him"

"Barret can not!" Barret growled. "No fuckin' way!"

"Oh, for the love of Jenova, give him here" 

Everyone turned. It was the first thing Vincent had said in a long time, other than muttered grumbles of 'Left' or 'Straight Ahead'

"You sure, tall man?" Cid quizzed, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. Now give him here" Vincent held out one arm, indicating for Cid to place the robotic cat on his claw. 

Cid pulled the tiny cat from his shoulders, did as he was bid. "What if he bops ya one, Vince?" he questioned again, seemingly mystified by his decision.

"He won't 'bop me one', as you so eloquently put it" Vincent muttered, allowing the cat to scramble up, adopt his new perch on Vincent's lofty shoulders.

Cid didn't doubt for a moment that being on Vincent's shoulders would subdue Cait a little. He wouldn't dare hit the gunslinger round the head. Not after seeing him dispatch two or more soldiers with single shots of his Buntline.

Cloud waited until Cait had settled. He could have sworn that he saw a hint of vertigo in Cait's beady black eyes, but dismissed it as reflection. 

"I trust there'll be no more interruptions?" his question was directed at Cait. Blue eyes so similar in terms of ethereal beauty to Reno's stared straight at the cat, who looked tiny next to Vincent. 

Cait shook his head, seemingly afraid to speak.

"Good" Cloud turned his back, nodded at Tifa, who, assured by Vincent that there was only a little way to go, once again began to lead the way.

"Let's mosey" Cid muttered under his breath.

_Authoresses note: Big huge hugs 'n' thanks to wHIte-cHOcoLaTE__, __morning z e p h y r, Arietti, S.Rena Valentine and DarkAngel666 for encouraging me to write! You guys kick ass, seriously _^_^_ I really, really want to break the 100 mark on reviews, so if you've read and enjoyed this, review it, help me achieve it! And I accept constructive criticism just as freely as praise. Though, obviously I prefer praise _^^_ but hey, if it helps me improve my writing *shrugs* I know I'll never be a Catalina, but I'd like to get better._

_Thanks loads for your time!_

_TIO ^_^__ (TioRankP@hotmail.com)_

_Roll on Chapter 27: The Darkness Out There_


	27. Chapter 27The Darkness Out There

**_                                                 Chapter 27-The Darkness Out There_**

_'Midgar is always changing. It's like a giant, stinking metal chameleon'_

_Elena Leonhardson_

_'(Opened up it's revealed) Savour this...  
(Don't get lost in the lie) Hit or miss..._

_Beside myself with doubt. Push on. _

_What's to come must be proved  
Focus bliss. Charcoal stares. _

_One foot at a time. _

_Smear those lines..._

_(It's what) (I) (Thought) I thought I found _

What I always wanted...  
(Bear) (With) (Me) Bear with me...'

"What I Always Wanted" 

_Kittie_

Elena stirred.

The minute she stirred, she felt a surge of serrated pain zip from her arm, travel the length of her synapse before returning to tap dance across her brain and shoulder with iron-spiked shoes. It felt like someone was dropping anvils on her head at irregular intervals…it throbbed with her steady pulse. She could almost feel the veins popping up on her forehead as they throbbed, pulsing life-giving blood back into her head, back into her face, back into _her_. A wave of nausea rose in her throat and she fought it back.

She blinked her eyes open.

She immediately regretted it. Sadistic colour began to attack her sensitive retinas, brutally bombarding them with moving images and brighter-than-bright light. She couldn't help but whimper.

A voice from above her: "Hey! Laney's awake!"

_'Laney?'_ she thought, finally squeezing a coherent thought out of her fuzzy, muddled brain _'Only Reno ever dares call me that'_

"Elena?" another male voice, this time calmer, quieter, accompanied by a gentle touch just below her chin. She wanted to turn round, see who was touching her, but that would require _strength…_and she just did not have any strength right now. Even blinking was a huge effort. God, what had she been drinking? This was like the worst hangover in the world.

"Elly?" it called again. Another nickname…Rude's nickname for her…the name he called her by when they were alone, when he wasn't quite as shy and serious. When both of them would sit in near silence, trying to find ways of articulating some unknown feeling or secret. Neither would ever find it. So they'd resort to silly anecdotes about Reno's latest idiocy, or about something funny that had happened on the way home from work. He'd always called her Elly.

"R…ru…" she managed to choke out before needing to swallow. Her mouth was dry and filled with some bitter taste she couldn't quite identify. She braced herself, swallowed it down in one huge lump of bitterness. Disgusting.

She felt a strong arm slip behind her, anchor itself around the narrow curve of her back, another hand gently supporting the base of her skull, pressing softly into her shoulder length blonde hair. The owner of the arm pulled her into a sitting position. Her back ached. Her neck was sore. She flopped against him…against Rude, feeling pathetic and helpless and weak.

Reno had always made her feel pathetic and helpless and weak, and that was why she detested him almost as much as she adored him. She hated feeling pathetic. She just wanted to feel like a Turk. Just once.

"Brave Elly" Rude coaxed her to sit by herself, pulling her from him, securing his great hands around her shoulders. She couldn't help it…her muscles ached, her bones were about as strong as jelly. She fell backwards. He caught her, pulling her back, finally allowing her to rest her weary rag doll form against his. A head of dishevelled blonde hair nestled against Rude's chest. His arms enveloped her. She was safe. She was alive.

"Good girl" he whispered, pressing a kiss into her mop of blonde hair. 

'_It would have sounded patronising from anyone but you'_ Elena thought, feeling his hands and arms form a protective cocoon around her, feeling him kiss her head. 

Reno gave Rude a lopsided grin.

The calm ambience was shattered by the shrill, brain-numbing squeal of the southern door opening.

Reno's lopsided grin quickly turned itself upside down and became a scowl. "What the fuck does the bitch want now?" he muttered, getting to his feet. He noticed, on the other side of the room, the newly-awoken Yuffie and Nanaki doing the same. Even Jo had adopted a defensive pose.

Thankfully their preparation was rendered redundant. Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockheart, looking for all the world like Siamese twins attached by the hip, were the first to enter the room, both adopting similar defensive stances.

"You prepared for the worst too, hmm?" Reno offered, relaxing at last. He holstered his nightstick again, breathed a concealed sigh of relief. "S'only us in here. Thought you were the psycho bitch from hell"

Cloud offered Tifa a confused glance, to which she responded with a smile that said 'I'll tell you later' 

"So…is everyone here?" Yuffie piped up hopefully. Her high voice echoed around the room and she found herself wincing at her own tone. 

The sound of a happy Yuffie only served to lift Tifa's ailing spirits. When she'd left her, the little ninja had been worriedly subdued. She looked from Reno to the girl with a knowing grin.

"Everyone's here" she answered. "Vincent, Barret, Cid, Cait, Tye…"

"Tye?" Jo blurted. She shrank away from their immediate stares, but continued. "Tye…Tye Reynold?"

As if on cue, the rest of the group pushed past their leaders. Cid and Barret, muttering among themselves, no doubt sharing cynical analogies and expletive-littered yarns. Vincent, who, to Yuffie's surprise, actually looked _funny_ with Cait Sith perched on his shoulder like a mutant parrot. She watched as the little cat raised his megaphone high above his head, squared himself up to give Vincent a good whack, threw the weapon forward, stopped just inches from Valentine's skull. He looked at her, grinned, seeking her approval. She gave him a silent thumbs up. Cait Sith's grin widened, and he began to scale Vincent's arm in a bid to reach _terra firma_ again.

From behind the tall Vincent stepped another man, a man Yuffie had never seen before. He was fairly tall, though admittedly tiny in comparison to Vincent's six foot or so, graced with a bedraggled-looking mop of scarlet hair which lay atop his head in no particular order. Judging by the way the hair around this mop had been shaved, she guessed the red would have usually been fashioned into some sort of mohawk or something. There was a little silver ring punched through the end of his left eyebrow, which caught the light each time he moved. His bleached blue eyes did the same, almost as if they were multi-faceted gemstones set into ivory. He was good-looking…no question there, even if he did have a spiteful, pensive expression and a few pretty purple bruises here and there. He was dressed all in black, a deathly contrast against his pale skin. A black tattoo coiled its way up his left arm.

In his arms lay something which Yuffie had first thought to be a sack of some sort. However, as he shifted, so did the 'sack', revealing long, bedraggled black hair which hung in a sort of messy, chaotic semi-plait. She was cloaked in a long white hospital gown which stopped halfway down her lean calves. Her feet were bare and slender and looked as if the slightest touch might shatter them. She too had a little ring…this time through her septum. Yuffie thought it weird how such a pretty girl had such a bullish piercing. But then…despite her obvious vulnerability, she didn't strike Yuffie as delicate. No, she looked like a fighter. She had a fighter's build, lean and strong.

"Tye!" Jo's face creased into a smile of recognition. 

"Joey?" Tye returned the favour, grinning widely. His gemstone eyes lit up. _'Make that VERY good-looking' _Yuffie mused.

"Jesus fucking Christ" Reno interrupted with an exasperated sigh "Just how many fucking aliases do you go under these days, Jo? Josephyne? Joey? Josie? Joanne? Jo-Jo Jeremiah the fifty-fucking-seventh!?!"

Jo chose not to comment, retaliating with an irritated glare. Then her gaze softened. "Oh my god, Tye, what's wrong with her?" 

"She's…sick" Tye answered cagily, and Yuffie noticed his grip on her tighten. Girlfriend, perhaps? She mentally cursed her bad luck. All the cute guys were taken. She watched as Jo skittered nervously across to where Tye stood, holding the girl like a baby.

"Give her here" she commanded gently, the first vaguely assertive thing she'd said. Oddly, Tye didn't refuse, handed the girl over. Yuffie half expected delicate little Jo to buckle under the weight. She did slightly, but straightened up again, carried the girl over to where she'd laid her jacket out on the ground as a makeshift blanket for the night. She laid her out, knelt down beside her, took a pulse, checked her breathing, removed a small glass vial of green liquid from her pocket.

Tye offered her an enquiring glance.

"Remedy" she answered, before pulling the unconscious girl into a sitting position. She pried her mouth open, unscrewed the vial and tipped the contents into her open mouth. The girl's reflexes, it seemed, were still working. She swallowed instinctively.

"Any poison in her system will be de-activated," she told Tye quietly. 

"Dr Jo, medicine woman" Reno muttered bitterly.

"Fuck you" Jo answered coolly.

"Josephyne"       

Now _there_ was a shock. Not only was Vincent voluntarily talking, but he'd referred to her by _name_. God, it must have been Jo's birthday.

"Yes?" she turned, leaving the little glass vial on the ground next to the unconscious girl, and faced him. Once again, she refused to shy away from his hellfire eyes, instead choosing to quell their flame with the cool ice of her own. Discomfort began scratching at the gunslinger like a rabid Bandersnatch.

"What other items do you have with you?"

Jo's gaze left his for a split second as she considered her inventory. "Tranquilizer, Hyper, Phoenix Downs, I think I may have an X-Potion" she offered an apologetic shrug "I'm sorry, I only have what I was given"

"It's fine" Vincent assured slowly. Hypers and Tranquilizers were heart-based drugs…they could potentially send the girl into cardiac arrest. Phoenix Downs were no good…she was unconscious, yes, but all her bodily functions were still running as normal and a Phoenix Down would not alter that. An X-Potion though…perhaps it could restore her strength, help her fight the poison, help the Remedy do its job.

"Use the X-Potion," he said finally, taking a few steps towards her. Usually this would intimidate a person, his reason for staying stationary most of the time…but for some strange reason, he knew Jo would not be cowed by something like that. Sensing her comfort, he crouched beside her and held out his human hand, ready to receive the bottle of purple liquid.

X-Potions, it seemed, were a freakish mutation of your everyday potion. A _useful_ mutation though…one of Shinra's better experiments. They restored sapped strength almost immediately. She handed him the bottle. It was one of those conical beakers that are so often found in laboratories. _How fitting_ Vincent mused, waiting for Jo to pry the girl's mouth open again. He tipped the liquid in, mouthful by mouthful until he was satisfied that she'd consumed all of it.  

"Let her sleep now" he advised. "And…thank you"

If Yuffie hadn't already seen it all, she'd have been gobsmacked. Vincent Valentine, offering non-formal, non-obligatory thanks? How un-Vincent. She shook her head slightly. Seemed like everyone was changing.

Jo's gaze softened. Her inky blue eyes took on a pretty warmth, and the ninja could have sworn that a slight blush rose up her cheekbones.

"That's okay," she returned.

Vincent straightened up, turned to his silent, almost astonished cohorts.

"The next point to address is our escape," he told them coldly, all traces of warmth and nicety gone "We have two injured, but otherwise we shouldn't have too much of a problem"

He turned to Reno "Can we trust you to lead the way?"

Reno shrugged indifferently "Guess so" he answered vaguely.

"Good" Vincent's voice was low and steady as usual. "Then let's go"

Nobody dared make the first move. 

The room fell victim to awkward silence.

Then, quietly, almost inaudibly, a low voice began to sing.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star…how I wonder what you are…"

Yuffie turned.

That gorgeous yet nameless redhead was stood at the back of the room. His arms were folded across his chest, and he rocked gently back and forth on his heels, great desert boots lifting and falling without a sound. A small, childish grin played on his lips, animating his attractive features and bringing life and colour back into a formerly sullen face that seemed to have lost all sense of joy. He didn't notice her stare.

"Up above the world so high…"

Clumps of messy crimson lay flat on his head like a bad wig. Otherwordly blue eyes relaxed, seemed content and…dare say…_happy_. His face was even more attractive when he smiled. _'Not bad'_ Yuffie mused, examining his lean form _'Not bad at all'_

"Like a diamond in the sky"

Cid rolled his eyes. Tifa smiled a little. Both were thinking the same thing.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star…"__

_'Looks like we've got our Tye back'_

"How I wonder what you are"    

They found the door, the very same door that Reno and Yuffie had exited the building by the previous night.

Reno led the way, following the scrapes in the damp plaster, the ones he'd left as a result of pent-up anger. Yuffie stuck close to him, occasionally pointing him in the right direction when he became confused. It seemed that their partnership really did work. 

Cloud and Tifa (still attached at the hip, much to Yuffie's amusement) took their allocated positions behind them. The corridor was narrow, not so narrow as to require single file, but narrow enough. They kept close to each other, occasionally exchanging parental smiles each time Yuffie and Reno engaged in one of their frivolous bickering excursions. Something had definitely happened between them. Some understanding had definitely been reached, Tifa was sure of it. Neither of them truly put their heart and soul into bickering anymore as they had done in the past. Whatever had happened, it had had a positive effect. 

In the middle were Rude and Tye, each carrying one of the hurt women. Juvi was still out for the count, as expected, but Elena was awake, and had been for the duration of their short journey. She was determined not to show herself to be weak and pathetic. She was determined not to live up to Reno's disparaging prophecy. Though still too shaky on her legs to walk, she had found the strength in herself to hold her body up in a sitting position, and offered her trademark naïve remarks whenever the mood needed lightening. 

_'Physical help may be beyond me right now'_ she told herself _'But I'll help somehow, you just watch'_

Barret and Cid, still engaged in their mothers meeting, made up the rear of the group along with Vincent (who still had Cait Sith perched atop his shoulders) A solid back wall should anyone try and attack. 

They found the door, half-open, creaking on its rusting hinges in the bitter Midgan breeze. It was dark outside. It was always dark in Midgar City, but this was the darkness of twilight…that forbidden time when the thieves and muggers and hookers and pimps came out to play. That forbidden time when gangs of predatory thugs with flick-knives and metal rods hunted the alleys for prey. 

It was time to finally step out into the darkness.

They didn't know where they were going, how they'd get home, but this was their first step.

And step they did, into the bitter night, into the thick, foul air, into the dirty grey mud.

Tifa took a moment to scan the horizon. The plate above Sector Two still stood, broken here and there, but otherwise every inch the foul pizza it had always been. Meteor's attack had left bits hanging precariously…live wires still sparked, loose metal still hung, creaking ominously in the thick wind. Shacks fashioned out of scrap metal and bricks still made up the basis of the slum. 

It still smelt of death and disease.

But there was something altogether _different_ about this Midgar. Maybe the answer was in the air; the ambience of the subdued, slow-moving slum. Maybe…maybe it was because people seemed _content_. 

_'Shouldn't life be a constant struggle for them?' _Tifa found herself musing as they made their silent way through the slum, ignoring as best they could the cold stares and crude comments. _'Shinra have gone…their source of energy and electricity is gone…yet they seem happier now than they ever did under Shinra's rule. They seem to enjoy running their own lives'_

"Midgar has changed" she found herself murmuring.

"Midgar is always changing" came another female murmur. Elena. She was still snuggled against Rude, still pale and tired, but her voice and tone betrayed a strange sort of inner health, an inner happiness. "It's like a giant, stinking metal chameleon"

Tifa nodded. 

_'You got what you wanted, didn't you'_ her eyes spoke directly into Elena's. _'You've always wanted him to hold you this way, and now you got what you wanted. I…I'm happy for you'_

She smiled.

"They're out"

"I know"

"Doesn't it bother you?"

Gray spun round on her chair. "Shawnie, baby" she cooed sweetly. "Why would it bother me? I'll let them think they've got away. It's more fun that way, isn't it? To give somebody a taste of freedom…and then to deny them of it" a sadistic gleam lit up her pondweed eyes and she grinned.

Shawn grinned too, a greasy, lacquered grin that was too false, too shiny, too much of a prosthetic.

"Fun is what I'm all about" she continued, spinning back round so she wasn't nauseated any longer by his fake smile. "I think it's time you had a little fun, Shawnie honey"

Shawn's grin widened. A perverted grin. "Yeah?"

"Go and get the files" his grin dropped almost immediately. She turned to face him and he righted his frown, turned it to a smile "Murdoc's files. I need to know what he did to that baby of mine"  
"You…you're…"

"No, idiot! Not _my_ baby…not technically, anyway…" her words trailed off and she suddenly went into a reverie. Her expression became blank. Her eyes dulled. She was, for a moment, entranced by something that wasn't even there.

"Files" she muttered again. "Shawn, Murdoc's files. I want them"

Shawn nodded.

"Now"

He exited.

Loki Gray shook her head, snapping out of her reverie. She pinched the bridge of her nose. She had a headache coming on. Who had that been? Someone had been speaking to her telekinetically, she'd been sure of it. Korei usually spoke with her that way…oh, but Korei didn't give her a grand headache! She squeezed her eyes shut; light was beginning to hurt them.

_'I know you'_ the voice had told her…a light, musical female voice, almost helium _'I know what it is you're trying to do. And I can stop you'_

Gray shook her head again to rid herself of the eerie echoes. Maybe it was Korei. Maybe Korei was playing a game with her, as she was so often inclined to do.

The faint scent of fresh flowers caught her nose.

Fuck…maybe she was just going crazy.

_A/N: God knows how I manage to rattle off chapters so quickly. I have nothing better to do with my half term, so perhaps that's got something to do with it? I don't know, but I hope this was of a decent quality._

_wHIte-cHOcoLaTE! Your Tye/Yuffie suggestion is something I've been trying to work into this fic for a while, and now the pair have finally met, I hope I can go deeper into this. (I do hope this chapter doesn't make you inhale any other hot drink _^_^)_ Don't worry, he won't rival Reno…but it'll be fun seeing him getting all jealous! If anyone has any other suggestions, don't hesitate to leave them with me! Thanks to everyone who has supported me so far. I think there will be a maximum of six more chapters to go until I finish this fic, so if you can bear with me…I'd be most grateful!!!  _

_Thanks for your time!_

_TIO _^_^_  
_TioRankP@hotmail.com

 Roll on Chapter 28-'Leaving Midgar' 


	28. Chapter 28: Leaving Midgar

Chapter 28-Leaving Midgar

_'I like the man with the red hair. Can he have some of my biscuits?'_

Scarlett Avison 

_'Why don't you know that you are my child?_

_Why don't you know that you are mine, mine?_

_Tell everyone in the world,_

_That I'm you_

_Take this promise to the end of you'_

_"Forest"_

_System Of A Down_

"I have to go home"

Abrupt, sudden. Jo stopped walking. 

"I have…I have to see Scarlett"

Reno drew back as if stung. Yuffie felt a peculiar wrench…jealousy, perhaps? She'd conveniently forgotten about his daughter and it certainly brought her back to earth with a bump to see how even the mention of the little girl's name provoked such a reaction in the Turk.

"Who's Scarlett?" Cid asked suspiciously "That whore who worked for Shinra?"

Jo's jaw tightened. "Scarlett is my five-year-old daughter," she said rigidly.

"Oh" Cid didn't seem the remotest bit sorry. 

"Is she on her own?" Reno suddenly demanded. A blast of cold wind hit him full in the face. He didn't even blink. 

"No!" Jo seemed shocked by his implication "Jesus, Reno! What kind of fucking mother do you think I am?"

"The kind of mother that won't tell her daughter that daddy misses her like fuck" he retorted acidly "The kind of mother that allows the father of her child to go all round the goddamn world, oblivious to the fact that he has a baby girl sitting in Midgar City. That's what kind of mother I think you are"

"Shit Reno" Cid interrupted him gruffly before he could continue on his uninhibited rant "This is no time for a fucking domestic, okay?"

The Turk's cold eyes shot poison-tipped daggers at the pilot.

"Go and see her," Tifa said gently, the calmness in her tone and gaze acting as an antidote to the poison ambience that had spread itself like a tumour among the group "We'll wait around in Sector Two for you. I'm sure there'll be a hotel or something around"

Jo nodded, swallowing down the lump that had steadily formed in her throat.

Tifa gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Come with me Reno" Jo said quietly. Her soft gaze never left the trodden brown mud path, which led beyond the tiny, scrappy nucleus of Sector Two and into the 'richer' areas…presumably, this was where Jo lived. "Come with me and see Scarl…your…your daughter"

He eyed her suspiciously…hurt lacing his cool blue irises "She doesn't know me, Jo" he said wearily "What would you tell her? 'Hi honey, oh by the way, this is one of mummy's friends, you know, one that she used to knock off back in the day'" he tilted his head to the side, expression suddenly turned sour and sceptical "There'd be no point and you know it"

"Scarlett has never known a father" Jo responded in a voice of calm control "The closest thing she has to a father is her babysitter, and she's an eighteen year old girl"

Reno spluttered automatically "You trusted her care to an eighteen year old?!?"

"Ami is perfectly capable" Jo said stonily. 

"'Ami' is still a child," Reno reminded.

_'Yuffie's eighteen'_ his mind reminded, and he suddenly felt a pang of horrible guilt. He resisted the urge to turn, offer her a reassuring glance. Hearing that sort of thing probably didn't do anything for the sense of paranoia he knew constantly ate at her. _'Yuffie's eighteen, and you'd trust *her* with Scarlett's life, wouldn't you? Yuffie's still a 'child', but that didn't stop you from sticking your tongue down her throat, did it?'_

"You know as well as I do that 'eighteen' in Midgar is equivalent to 'thirty'" Jo told him, hands on hips. The wide-brimmed hat she had been wearing back in the compound was wrinkled up in her left hand "She has lived more than any office-working, suit-wearing bitch on the Plate. She is perfectly capable"

"With a child?" _'You'd trust Yuffie'_

"She has a child of her own. With Frank Christoph" _'Typical Midgar girl'_

"She's looking after two kids!?!" _'You would trust Yuffie with your child's life, why not this girl?'_

"You're just fucking nitpicking now!" _'Because you love Yuffie, that's why'_

"SHUT UP!"__

Yuffie's shrill exclamation came as a surprise to all gathered around the bickering pair. All eyes swung round to the angry, hurt visage of the little ninja, whose own eyes were dark, narrowed, angry, brimming. 

"Stop arguing!" she yelled in a frighteningly wobbly voice "Does it matter? Do you really think Scarlett would want to see mummy arguing? With her daddy? I don't think so"

Reno opened his mouth to protest, but couldn't summon enough courage to retort. No…he just didn't have the heart. Not when her eyes were full to the brim with tears. Not when her face betrayed a heart in danger of shattering.

_'My fault'_ Reno lowered his head in apparent shame _'All my fault'_

"Calm down Yuffie" Tifa soothed, reaching an unnervingly bare hand out to quell her friend's frayed nerves. "We'll all work our way back to Junon…I'm sure we can hire a car or something. And Reno, Jo and maybe another person can take a trip to see Scarlett"

"I'll go," volunteered Tye.

"What of Juvi?" Cloud enquired.

Tye shrugged. His sudden switch from worried, world-bearing young man to blasé nutcase was more than a little frustrating, especially when the current situation demanded serious commentary. Not tuneless renditions of 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' "She doesn't need me" he said, thin lips pressed into a straight line "When she finds out what's happened, she certainly won't want me"

"She'll want to see you when she wakes up" Tifa insisted gently.

Tye shook his head, the messy spines flapping wildly. "No she won't" he replied airily.

Tifa sighed. He wasn't making things easy. "Yes, she will" she replied steadily, slowly beginning to understand why Cid hadn't been able to keep his temper with the kid "She doesn't know any of us. You're her only familiar face. Stay with her, Tye"

The redhead mused on this for a moment. Icily beautiful eyes darkened momentarily, and it seemed that, perhaps, by some miracle, the boy was reverting back to 'serious Tye' mode.

Then he looked up, eyes smiling, thin lips twisted into a mock gormless expression.

"Aaaallll by myyy-seeeelf" he intoned in a low voice "Don'twannabe…aaalll by myyy-seeeelf…don'twannabe…"

"You will not be all by yourself" Tifa sighed, clenching her fists at her sides. Usually, she was very calm and composed, but her nerves were frayed, she was tired, dirty, aching, and the kid was really, REALLY trying her patience. "I'm sure someone will stay with you…" she briefly scanned the faces of her cohorts. Vincent, impassionate and deadpan as always. Cid, whose silent visage was begging her not to suggest him as Tye's minder. Red, who was busy sniffing at the putrid air. Cloud, who Tifa knew wouldn't want to part company with her.

Yuffie seemed the only other option. Her hyper personality and bright, stark optimism (not to mention fascination with all things Materia) would hopefully make her the perfect choice for Tye's company.

"…I'm sure Yuffie wouldn't mind staying with you" she finished, waiting for the ninja's reaction. She expected the standard 'Yuffie' reaction…an incredulous glare followed by a shrill cry of "No way!"

Thankfully, there was none of that. She merely nodded with a forcedly amiable smile and sidestepped a tiny bit towards the tall, red-haired man who was soon to be her responsibility. Tifa thought she could detect a slight twitch in the jaw of the other redhead in her life, Reno, but perhaps she'd imagined it…

"And I think, perhaps, it would be best if I were to accompany you and Reno" Vincent's baritone rumble cut through the awkward silence like a knife through butter. Almost immediately, eleven pairs of surprised eyes swivelled up to meet his. The deadpan expression never left his face as he continued.

"Reno, you and I are both aware that Midgar is not a safe place for one to walk alone" he addressed the redhead directly. The Turk eyed him with a considerable amount of suspicion lacing his gaze like arsenic. "Suppose, on your return from Josephyne's home, you encounter thieves? We both know, skilled as you are, that you could not take them out alone"

_'And if that sudden offer has nothing to do with the fact that Vinnie has the hots for Jo then I'm a Chocobo' _Yuffie thought, fighting back a grin. So, it seemed that Vamp boy _did_ have human feelings after all. She watched as Jo, who had been standing with her head bowed, lifted her face up, exposing her cool blue eyes to the dark man. 

"Thank you Vincent" she told him, voice steady and throaty. A hint of a smile toyed with the corners of her lips. The gunslinger merely nodded his reply. Reno opened his mouth to protest, but shut it when he realised that any protest would be redundant. Jo and Vincent had decided, and who was he to complain?

_'Why can't we all go?' _he found himself thinking, catching the glowering visage of the pretty little Ninja to his left _'Then I wouldn't have to leave her…then she wouldn't have to babysit that fucking headcase…'_

"Whatever" Reno muttered.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"I had NO idea"

Cid lit a cigarette and sat down on the rain-softened bench.

"I thought he was just a fucking playboy. Not a dad"

"There's a lot we don't know about him, that's for sure" Tifa resisted the instinctive urge to blurt out everything about Reno and Aeris, but kept her mouth shut. What good would it do? Aeris was gone. Period. The only thing she'd accomplish by resurrecting that old ghost would be creating conflict…especially between Cloud and Reno. 

_'Maybe Cloud would think differently about perfect Aeris if he knew…'_ Tifa cut off that stream of thought, disgusted with herself. Sure, playing second fiddle to a dead girl was hard. But she'd learnt to live with it. And thinking such thoughts wasn't right. Aeris had been a friend.

"Too fucking much" Cid shook his head and offered a cigarette to Barret, silently praising Midgar city for having a never-ending supply of the little nicotine cylinders. "What'll we find out next? He's an evangelist priest on the side?"

"Doubtful" Barret mused, nearly placing the smouldering end of his cigarette on Nanaki's mane. The beast shifted to the side a little, Cait Sith perched on his back like a tiny jockey.

"The point is…" Cid paused to blow out a few neat little rings of grey smoke, savouring the bitter taste "…we could be totally wrong about the guy. Maybe he's not the drink-driven whore we all thought he was"

Tifa stopped pacing. "Cid Highwind" she grinned "You were the last guy I thought I'd see petitioning for the 'Give Reno Lozano A Chance' campaign"

"It's nothin' like that" Cid justified gruffly, leaning back on the bench "It's just…well, I guess I've got a little time and sympathy for him now I know just what's gone on. I mean…imagine not knowing that you've got a kid somewhere…a kid that doesn't even know you exist" his faded blue eyes met Tifa's and he afforded her a serious gaze "Can you even begin to imagine how much that'd fucking hurt?"

Tifa nodded. "I guess you're right" She looked across to where Cloud was busy bargaining with the car-rental man. He was flashing a thick wad of Gil and singling out the biggest car there…a huge red monster of a car that looked like it guzzled fuel like Reno guzzled vodka. The rental guy had his arms crossed, apparently listening to Cloud's offer with greedy interest.

She smiled, and turned once again to see Tye, who, still cradling Juvi, (she found herself marvelling at the fact that he'd managed to carry the girl all the way from the compound to here without tiring) was engaged in conversation with his babysitter. Amazingly, the Ninja had cheered up a little since her 'downer' half an hour ago, and seemed to be fairly interested in what the punk kid had to say. He appeared to have reverted to a sort of semi-serious mode, and was gesticulating wildly with his left hand, which, up until then, had rested on Juvi's stomach. Yuffie, looking tired, bedraggled and worryingly down, was nodding and offering her own commentary on what he was saying. Just like she'd expected, they were getting on like a house on fire.

Satisfied that all was well, she allowed herself a place on the long bench next to Rude and Elena. The blonde Turk, still not quite strong enough to carry herself, was perched delicately on the lap of her taller friend. He had his strong arms tucked around her dainty waist, his cheek against hers, murmuring to her softly. 

This time she couldn't suppress it; a huge smile crossed the brunette's face. Elena and Rude. Happy at last. They deserved it. It was just a shame that it had taken the fear of her death for Rude to finally pluck up enough courage. 

"Good to see someone's smiling"

Tifa looked up to see who was addressing her. She was greeted by a decidedly dour looking Cloud, who displayed to her his bare right arm.

"Five thousand Gil, a mastered All materia and a Gigas armlet" he told her sourly. "I think he'd have taken the clothing right off my back if I hadn't threatened to cut him in half"

Tifa grinned. "You got the buggy though?"

Cloud nodded with a jaded sigh "Yeah, it's ours," he told her, offering out his hand. She took it, and he pulled her to her feet, drawing her to him in a brief embrace. "I love you, Tifa"

She kissed him on the cheek "I love you too, Cloud" she told him. "What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?" he placed both hands on her shoulders and held her at arms length "Can't I tell you that I love you once in a while?"

"No" she grinned playfully "It usually means you're after something"

"Well, now that you mention it…" he faded out with a grin. 

"What?"

"All this 'kids' business made you broody yet?"

Tifa feigned a shocked expression "Cloud Strife!" she exclaimed "Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting!?!?"

"Not if you don't want to" Cloud answered, drawing her back to him and kissing her forehead "But you know I'd love to start a family. With you. Maybe after we're married…?"

"…I'll think about it" Tifa smiled into the soft material of his shirt, secretly elated. A baby? She'd always wanted a kid of her own, ever since Marlene had bounced and skipped her way into her life all those years ago. And maybe soon it _would_ be her turn…

"Come on then" Cloud pulled away, took her hand again "Let's head for home, Mrs Strife"

"Steady on there, we're not married _yet_" Tifa grinned. "Come on everyone, we're heading home"

Barret and Cid got up simultaneously, stubbing out their cigarettes and throwing them to the ground. Nanaki, with Cait still on his back, followed them. Rude helped Elena stumble her way across the muddy ground. Tye, still holding Juvi, who seemed not so much unconscious as deeply asleep, took off across the mire followed by a visibly downcast Yuffie.

Never before had such an eyesore of a fuel-eating, bone-crushing buggy been such a beautiful sight.  

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Ami! I'm home!"

Jo shrugged off her jacket, hung it up on the coat rack and closed the door behind her. In the hall, the two tall men stood, looking around, unsure as to where they should go.

"One moment, Ms Avison!" a high voice called, before, with a skitter of feet, the girl entered the hallway. Though she was Yuffie's age, she looked a lot older. She was taller than the ninja and not as bony and boyish. Far from it; she was beautifully feminine, even down to her long mane of dyed crimson hair. Dressed in typical Midgan 'punk' garb…namely, leather jacket, red halter and ripped black jeans…she could easily pass for twenty. She looked tough as well.

"Scarlett's been so good, Ms Avison" she smiled gently, completely oblivious to the fact that two huge, towering men stood in the hallway directly behind her. "She ate all her dinner, and even had seconds. We were so worried about you. It's good to have you back"

Ami's gaze fell upon the shorter of the two men. A redhead, lean and scowling yet effortlessly good-looking. Bright blue eyes. Graceful bone structure. Just like Scarlett.

Then it clicked.

"Oh…" she bowed apologetically "Forgive me, Ms Avison, I didn't realise you had, er, guests…Scarlett's at the table"

"Same time tomorrow Ami?" Jo reached into her pocket and handed her a small wad of gil, which the younger girl tucked into the front pocket of her jacket. 

"I'll be round at seven" she answered. "Have a good evening, Ms Avison"

"You too Ami. Say 'hi' to Callie and Frank for me" Jo watched as the younger girl sidled her way nervously past Reno and Vincent, offering her a quick wave before exiting hastily.

Jo smiled briefly at her company before making her way into the living room. A small, dimly lit room with whitewashed walls and barely sanded floorboards. At least Jo had made an effort.

In the middle of the room, sat at the table, was a little girl, kicking her feet and crafting a scrawly drawing with some crayons. Her flaming red hair was tied back in a loose ponytail and secured with a white ribbon. She was wearing a baby blue nightdress, and the minute Jo stepped into the doorway, her cool blue eyes widened to dinner plate proportions.

"Mummy!" she called, jumping down from her perch atop a stack of phonebooks and bolting across the floor with a _pitter-patter_. She leapt into Jo's outstretched arms, throwing her arms around her mother in the tightest of hugs.

"Hiya baby" Jo murmured, kissing her fiery red mane and standing up, the girl nestled in her arms. She stepped out of the way to allow Reno and Vincent access to the room.

Scarlett immediately glared at the strangers. "Who you?" she asked, high voice amusingly suspicious. "Mummy, who those men?"

"They're mummy's friends, honey" Jo's eyes never left Reno's as she spoke "This is Vincent, and this is Reno. He's…" she choked on her sentence, decided it best not to continue "He's…he's my friend"

"Like Ami is my friend?" Scarlett asked brightly.

"Yes. Like Ami" Jo nodded, breaking away from Reno's saddened gaze. "Did you have a good time in Kalm, hon?"

"Oh! We saw birds!" Scarlett exclaimed cheerily, breaking free of her mother's grasp to run around in a circle, arms outstretched "Ami said they were called _marrows_!"

_'Marrows…?' _Reno mused before realising _'Oh! She means Sparrows!'_ it suddenly dawned on him…he's missed all this. He'd missed his daughter's first word, her first step, her first tooth. He'd missed out on everything. And now…now she didn't even know who he was. 'Mummy's friend'. Not 'Daddy'. Just a casual acquaintance. 

"And…" the girl stopped circling and stared up at Reno, the intensity of her blue eyes in the dimness almost frightening. "We saw a Trocobo!"

Reno feigned shock. "A Trocobo?!?" he exclaimed, kneeling down so he was level with her "No way! What colour was it?"

"It was a blue one" Scarlett told him matter-of-factly "Blue, like my nightie"

"And did it say 'Wark'?" Reno asked.

"It did!" Scarlett clapped her hands in delight. She turned to her mother, who was standing with her hands on her hips, an unmistakeably wistful expression on her face.

"I like the man with the red hair" she told her sincerely "Can he have some of my biscuits?"

"If he wants" Jo smiled. "But don't you think it's time you went to bed?"

Scarlett's smile faded, was replaced by a sulky look taken straight from the face of her father "Muuuum" she whined, shuffling her feet "Do I have to?"

"Yes" Jo hauled the girl up, gave her a brief hug "Say goodnight to Uncle Reno and Uncle Vincent, honey"

"Goodnight Munkle Reno!" Scarlett beamed "Maybe one day you might see a blue Trocobo! One that says 'wark' like the one I saw did!"

"I hope so! Night night Scarlett" Reno wanted to hug her…no, he wanted to take his daughter in his arms and never, ever give her back. But he didn't. Instead, he merely waved.

"Go on" Jo put her back down, nudged her back gently. "Off to bed with you!"

Scarlett gave another energetic wave, grinning cheekily all the while. Then, bare feet pattering against the wooden floorboards, she ran off to bed.

Jo watched her go. "You're a natural," she told Reno, turning to face him with a melancholy expression on her face. "Maybe…maybe you could read her a story…?"

Reno nodded.

"Maybe I could," he told her bitterly, following the path his secret daughter had taken just a few moments before.

Jo bit her lip.

Vincent's low voice once again interrupted the tense silence.

"You could tell her"

"I couldn't" Jo answered immediately, turning to face him. Her eyes were glimmering with tears and she looked as if she would burst into tears any second. "Do you know what that would do to her? To me? Reno won't be around forever. He has things to do. And…" she swallowed hard, forcing down the lump that was rising in her throat "And so do I. Which is why… which is why tomorrow, you'll have to go without me"

Vincent said nothing.

"I'm sorry…I really, really am…" she couldn't hold it back any longer; the hot tears finally broke past the barrier of her lower eyelids, spilling over, running down her cheeks.

On pure instinct, instinct he thought had died long ago, Vincent reached out, drew her to him, held her there while she wept silently.

She wept a long, long time.

_THANKS to Carter Tachikawa, who posted the hundredth review! Better authors have broken that mark in far less chapters than I, but…who cares! C.T, I thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!!!!! DarkAngel666, may I please have that cookie you promised? *puppydog eyes* I need the sugar fix! Been up all night finishing this chapter! Arietti, Izzi,__ Crystal, Chuu, wHIte-cHOcoLaTE__, Morning z e p h y r, scarr, S. Rena Valentine, everyone else I sinfully missed out, thanks for your reviews, *hugs* sorry, been drinking coke all night to keep me awake ._

_Next chapter won't take quite as long (hopefully) so, watch this space! More Jo/Reno/Vincent and of course Scarlett next chapter, as well as some Yuffie/Tye and Rude/Elena. And other bits too, of course ^_^ including Gray…and Shawn…and Korei…and somebody else…_^_^

_Thanks for your time…not long now! Probably *thinks* I can see five or six more chapters ahead, and that'll be that!_

_Thanks!_

_~TIO ^_^ (TioRankP@hotmail.com)_

Roll on Chapter 29-Awakening 


	29. Chapter 29: Chaos

**_Chapter 29-Chaos_**

**__**

_'Has the red-eyed freak finished his seizure yet? Cause if it's okay with him I'd like to go back into the living room, thank you very much'_

_Reno Lozano_

_'Possession, invention_

_Invite discovery_

_Surrender to pleasures_

_Lost in ecstasy_

_Survive_

_You are my enemy_

_You die for lies, slave to misery_

_Sometimes I sit and ask myself what have I become?_

_What have I become?_

_What have I become?_

_Someone's taking over me'_

_"Possession"_

_Otep_

Shawn let the door close with a tiny, tired click and entered the office. In the darkness, everything seemed a peculiar shade of blue-grey. Shadows were elongated and twisted into abstract shapes. Colours were inverted. He silently found himself wondering if Fergal Murdoch's office was as disturbing in the daytime.

He fumbled for his pocket torch and hesitated for a moment before flipping the switch and sending a narrow beam of bright light cutting through the thick, dirty darkness. 

On his desk were, predictably, a small bowl of pistachio shells accompanied by a bottle of half-drunk Condor Spring mineral water and a small memo scrawled untidily on a neon-pink Post It.

He squinted, shining the dirty torchlight directly at the memo.

"Project postponed until further notice. Notify Blake"

Shawn tore the Post-It from the desk and stuffed it in his jacket pocket. Blake Hawkins was 'the boss' as far as their science department was concerned. To have him involved in such a covert experiment was not only dangerous but also frightening…failure to comply to his very high standards often meant death in some form or other. _'We have no time for time wasters'_ he often intoned before sending another hapless student to their death. He had no idea what Murdoch was thinking by inviting Blake along. He didn't want to find out.

Making sure the note was safely in his pocket, he set about examining Murdoch's filing cabinets. He had no idea what the crackpot had named this project-the prof was eccentric…he'd named previous projects after Wutaian monarchs (the Chishio project) mythological figures (the Demeter Project) and Costan cocktails (the Black Daiquiri project) but all he had to do was search. He was aware that the file was bound in a length of pink cardboard, and that was all.

Prising the first cabinet open (Murdoch's disregard for security was going to lead to his downfall someday soon, Shawn was sure of it) he immediately caught sight of a neon pink folder among the forest greens and algae greys. A small smirk crossed his face as he pulled the thick pile of loosely bound papers from the drawer and, slamming it on the table, began to leaf through.

He found the papers he was looking for.

_'Chapter VII: Tye Reynold_

_Chapter VIII: Juventa Darkhart_

_Chapter XI: The Jenova Project and its influence'_

He leered greasily. And pocketed the papers.

"…And then the prince and the princess rode off into the sunset on the back of their faithful Chocobo" Reno closed the book in his lap and, with a small smile, looked down at the little red-haired girl tucked up safely in her bed, no doubt already dreaming Chocobo dreams. Her brilliant blue eyes were shut, long red eyelashes, easily missable, spread across her pale skin. Her eyelids twitched gently as Reno shut the book and for a moment he feared she might wake, but she merely muttered some unintelligible remark and fell back into a deep slumber.

Reno pressed two fingers to his thin lips and extended them in the direction of his daughter, blowing her a delicate kiss, before with a fond smile he turned and pulled her bedroom door to, cutting off the bright, abrasive light from the landing. Slowly, he descended the stairs.

_*~Vincent held Jo at arm's length, examining that tear-streaked face, those swollen yet ethereally exquisite eyes. She sniffed, hiccupped, breathed deep. And then her eyes met his, cool blue met ruby red, quelling the flame with her icily lovely gaze. Her hand traced the profile of his angular face, taking time to trawl along every little contour~*_

Reno stopped on the way down to examine a picture on the wall. An old photo, it seemed, placed in an oak frame and hung on the wall with pride. It was of Scarlett as a baby, a smiling, chubby baby with random curls and sprouts of puffy, flame-red hair and gorgeous sky blue eyes. She was sat on a fluffy white rug and laughing at something behind the camera, reaching out one chubby hand to grab it. Beautiful, even as a tiny baby. Reno shook his head sadly, stared at the picture for a short while, the fond smile spreading across his handsome, if weary features.

_*~Jo fashioned her index finger into a gentle hook underneath Vincent's chin, used the tip of her nail to coax his face closer to hers. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her pale, cold face, feel his pulse quicken. If he was as inhuman as he claimed to be, why was his heart beating with such a human rhythm?~*_

Reno's foot hit a loose floorboard and he recoiled at the sheer pitch of it. He instinctively drew his foot up, pulling his knee almost to his chest before extending his long leg and placing it on the step below, testing with the toe of his trainer before daring to step onto it.

_*~They both heard the creak and both jumped simultaneously. They both leapt back as if stung, even Vincent, cold, monstrous Vincent. Both exchanged guilty, embarrassed smiles. And both scanned the doorway for a certain redheaded spitfire~*_

Reno entered the room just as two sets of impossibly bright eyes fixed on his lean frame. He seemed fairly startled by this and lifted both palms as if to attest his innocence. "Hey, she's asleep, I haven't kidnapped her or anything"

Jo allowed herself to relax, breathing deeply. "Thanks a lot, Reno" she straightened out and offered him a sweet, weary smile "She likes you"

Reno nodded listlessly "My baby girl" he murmured, eyes lowering to the floor. "I can't believe you never told me about her, Jo. Why?"

Jo sighed for the umpteenth time that evening. "Because I was afraid that you wouldn't care," she told him with the air of an endlessly patient grandmother. "I didn't think you'd want anything to do with her. You were moving up in the world and she'd only have held you back" she eyed him bravely, finally able to look him straight in the eye "If you'd have come back to us, you wouldn't be who and where you are today"

Reno snorted, took a seat "You say that like it's a bad thing" he said gloomily.

"And what's wrong with the Reno sitting in front of me?" Jo enquired maternally. "You're still the same man I fell in love with years ago, Reno. The only difference between you and him is your job description"

Reno snorted again "Come on Jo, who could learn to love someone like me?"

Jo tilted her head to the side. A cascade of silky dark hair upset the balance of her delicate face and she brushed it behind her ear "I think you know who" she told him cryptically "Somebody loves you, Reno. I've seen it in her eyes. And you know who I'm talking about"

Reno feigned ignorance.

Jo sighed, this time in exasperation rather than weariness. "Don't play the fool with me, Reno Lozano. I've seen it in the girl's eyes and I've seen it in your eyes. She loves you. Accept it"

The redhead shook his head and leaned forward, staring at the rotting floorboards. 

Jo rolled her eyes.

Vincent, meanwhile, had been milling about the room, his black boots clicking on the hollow flooring. Each time he turned, his cloak caught the breeze and billowed out behind him like a bloody cloud. There was a peculiar chill in the air, not the frosty chill of winter but the cold, pit-of-stomach chill that Vincent so often felt. Chaos. He was sure of it. That feeling of freezing dread in the very depths of his gut and the lightness of his head were both sure signs of the foul demon. 

_Chaos…_

Vincent could feel it rising in him like hot bile

_Chaos…_

_'Get thee away from me, foul demon'_ Vincent muttered to himself, to the other self he hid like a cyanide capsule inside a wedding cake. _'You have plagued me long enough'_

_Chaos…_

Vincent felt it rise, felt the Demon enter his mind and seize control of his limbs, and felt all at once disgustingly helpless, like a tiny child. He felt sick and weak but at the same time graced with a strength his 'human' self could never attain, not in a thousand years.

"Jo! Get down!" he barked suddenly, not feeling his mouth move, not feeling his throat rumble, hearing his own voice as a disembodied yell.

Jo snapped round sharply, blue eyes wide and shocked. 

"Down!" Vincent barked again, gesturing with his human hand for her to squat. _'Demon, leave me be!'_ he commanded the creature in control. 

He felt a pang, a painful, searing pang in his head and he couldn't even recoil, couldn't even wince. Chaos had retorted. Chaos had complete control.

_Chaos…_

Without protest, Jo squatted, covering her head with both hands.

Vincent turned to Reno. "Reno, get Scarlett" he said in a low, hoarse voice "Quickly!" 

_'What is happening to me?' _Vincent questioned himself, distantly feeling his arm rise, fingers fashioning themselves into a crude point. _'What is wrong? Why can't I regain control…?'_

"Vincent, what's wrong…?" Jo asked worriedly.

"Stay down there" he dismissed gutturally "Don't move"

_'I'm afraid…'_ Vincent hadn't felt this frightened since his early teenage years. He'd never needed fear. It hadn't mattered to him whether he lived or died. He had nobody to live for, and nobody to die for.

Now that had all changed. 

_'Curse you'_ he spat at the demon.

Chaos retorted with another excruciating pang, and Vincent supposed that if the beast kept on, he'd wake up with one hell of a haemorrhage. If he woke up. 

"Vincent, what the fuck has gotten into you?" Reno growled savagely. Vincent could see that the redhead's guard was up, that his hackles had risen. There was nothing he could do.

"Just get the child" he muttered "Don't be insolent"

_'How dare you, Chaos'_ he growled. _'How dare you take me over. You are nothing but a parasite'_

**_~Parasite I may be, Valentine~_**came Chaos' eerie, wavering tones **_~But a parasite with more power and substance than you could ever dream of possessing. You are a sinner, Valentine, and sinners must rot, not find love with hellcats like that girl. Rot~_**

Reno left him with one last distrustful glare. There were a few creaks as he ascended the staircase, then the sound of hushed mutters. He was waking the child.

_'What do you want Chaos?'_ Vincent asked wearily. He could see Jo, still tucked up in a compact ball on the floor, not looking up, merely shaking. She was afraid, and if Vincent had been in control he would have allowed himself to comfort her. He would have allowed himself to indulge his human feelings, such as they were. But as it stood…he was like a stranger to his own body.

**_~Your soul~_ **Chaos chuckled **_~But seeing as I cannot have that, I will settle for your happiness. You have sinned. You have sinned and I am your messiah. Do as I say, with no arguments, and perhaps you might stand a chance of redemption~_**

_'Fuck redemption'_ Vincent spat angrily. _'Chaos, leave me now. If I am a sinner, then that's what I will be. I do not need you to act the saviour'_

**_~You need me~_**

_'I don't'_

**_~You cannot fight without me~_**

_'I can fight fine without you. Give me my body back'_

**_~You're a fool, Valentine~_**

_'That's fine with me'_

**_~…As you wish' _**Vincent felt an excruciating sense of relief as, at last, his body and consciousness were returned to him. The ensuing head-rush almost had him tumbling head over heels but he managed to keep steady as he straightened out. 

"Jo?" he ventured, watching for her instinctive recoil as he murmured her name.

"W…what now?" Jo's voice wavered as she peered up. Vincent's voice seemed calmed than before, a little more human. 

"I'm sorry Jo," he said gruffly, rubbing his left eye. A small, vexing pinprick pain had begun to stab at the hollow between his eyeball and socket. "Sometimes when I sense fear or anger, he takes me over. That was not I you just saw, but he"

Jo didn't unfurl from her protective ball but eyed Vincent with a mixture of hurt, distrust and curiosity. "Who is he?" she enquired softly.

Vincent shook his head "I am not entirely sure," he confessed, "though I often profess to know. All I am aware of is that he is a demon, he calls himself Chaos, and he uses me as a boarding house. It's all right, Josephyne, you can stand up again"

Eyeing him warily, she got to her feet again.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, barely audible "I can't control him; he comes and goes as and when he chooses. It is like trying to control a phantom…you cannot confine something you cannot see, or feel, or even understand"

Jo's eyes disclosed an overwhelming sympathy "It must be awful living like that" she said softly.

"Not so" Vincent said, reaching his human hand up to pinch the bridge of his thin nose "He usually appears in the heat of battle; I benefit from his power and in turn he feeds from me like the parasite he is. It's a mutual agreement. It is only when he infringes upon my life and my dealings that I wish to exorcise him"

"And…would you prefer to live with or without him?" Jo enquired.

He didn't even hesitate "Without" he answered. "I cannot bear him any longer; he will surely be my undoing"

Jo offered Vincent a small, wry smile. "You're more human than you think, Vincent," she told him.

"Finished throwing' your fit, Vamp?"

Both sets of eyes swivelled towards the doorway. The voice had floated from the hall. Jo shrugged, stepped over, peered out.

Reno was sulking on the bottom step.

"What're you doing here?" she demanded as if he were some random hobo from the slums outside.

The redhead glared. "Barring the stairs so no motherfucker can hurt my little girl" he answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Has the red-eyed freak finished his seizure yet? Cause if it's okay with him I'd like to go back into the living room, thank you very much"

"He's fine now Reno" she answered curtly "And if you've finished sulking like a child then maybe you'd get your arse off the stairs and get into the living room yourself. Or would you rather I carried you?"

"I'd rather you stopped being sarcastic," Reno muttered, pushing himself into a standing position and languidly making his way into the living room, pulling his loosely-plaited hair out of its elastic band and winding the thin grey loop around his scarred fingers. Jo shot him a poisonous glare as he exited, pulling her own black locks back into a sloppy ponytail and yanking hard before letting it drop around her hunched shoulders. She breathed a long sigh of mixed exhaustion and stress before following her former love into the dingy living room.

"So…would you mind explaining what the fuck that was all about?" Reno demanded almost immediately, settling himself once again on the threadbare armchair. His chaotic Mako eyes glared straight at the calm gunslinger, asking a thousand questions _'What are you, Valentine? What are you, what do you want with the mother of my baby, what do you want with us all? Are you really just here for the ride or are you here for your own gain? What are you? Because you're certainly not human'_

Vincent answered none of these. "I have occasional lapses" he said cagily, tugging at one of his crude steel claws as if to check that it was still securely fastened "Lapses which occur when I sense some sort of danger. It appears that this was a false alarm. I apologise"

Reno narrowed his eyes "Vincent, you're a fucking screwball," he said bluntly.

"I thank you" Vincent replied coolly. "The feeling is mutual"

"Sing to me, my muses"

Loki Gray spun round on her chair (_'just like they do in the movies'_ she thought) and faced Shawn with the sickliest sweet smile she could muster. Clean blonde locks framed her once pretty face like thin sheets of spun gold. Her mutilated nose, still a swollen, bruised lump of misshapen flesh and cartilage, sat in the middle of her face like a pile of rubbish sitting in the middle of a pristine marble floor. 

"I assume you got them?" she asked pleasantly, tilting her head to the side so as to allow a sheet of cool blonde hair to trickle down her neck. "Come on Shawnie baby, show me my muses"

With a trademark greasy leer, Shawn handed her the three separate sleeves.

Gray's smile took on a sinister curl as she accepted the papers, pulling the first lot out of their transparent sleeve and leafing through.

"Tye Reynold" she read thoughtfully "Age 22, born twelfth May. Place of birth unknown, thought to be Midgar City or thereabouts. Born to Mercutio Reynold, deceased, former builder, and Locke Reynold (nee Fuscienne) deceased, former shopkeeper. Mercutio was undergoing Mako treatment for prepared induction to the Shinra ranks and was thought to have reacted badly to the Mako, contracting a form of blood-borne cancer" she eyed Shawn with a sharklike grin, a grin taken straight from Shinoda Brynne. "This is gold, Shawnie baby. Absolutely fantastic"

"Glad you're happy Loki" Shawn replied, an all too obvious attempt at sucking up to the blonde firework. "Would you like anything else before I go on my break?"

"No Shawn" Gray shook her head. "You can go now. Bring me back a tuna sandwich, no mayonnaise. Thank you"

"No problem"

Gray didn't notice him leave. She dived straight back into the papers. There had been a line in there, something that had caught her attention before she had to dismiss Shawn, who's constant leering was beginning to make her queasy. 

_'Mercutio was undergoing Mako treatment for prepared induction to the Shinra ranks and was thought to have reacted badly to the Mako, contracting a form of blood-borne cancer'_ she read again _'This went undetected for at least a year, during which a son was conceived. Tye Reynold was born on May Twelfth; apparently at home in Midgar (owing to the supposed home birth no record was kept) Locke Fuscienne was in Shinra's books before the company disintegrated. Her details were found in a file on the 70th floor. Please consult the appendix for information on her, it may prove important'_

Gray's eyes widened to diner plate proportions and she greedily pulled the pages away to reveal the neatly printed appendix. It was only one sheet of paper, comprised of a single block of text.

_'Locke IhFahn Fuscienne' _proclaimed the first bold line _'Born August Seventh in Mideel. Aged thirty at time of death. She was killed, along with her husband and two stepchildren (with whom we had absolutely no interest) by the Sector Seven plate_

_Ms Fuscienne is, in part, of Cetral blood. Her father, name unknown, was believed to have been one of the last surviving Ancients along with Sherudo Eryl and Ifalna Gainsborough. The former died three years prior to this report without having sired any children. The latter, also deceased, has produced a female child with former Shinra scientist Andrew Gast. The child is undergoing current tests in our Shinra laboratories. With her Cetral blood and Mr Reynold's Mako treatment, it is almost inevitable that the boy, although not pure Ancient, will bear some sort of interesting characteristics. He is currently residing in Corel. Nothing more is certain'_

"Tye, you sneaky little thing" she said to nobody in particular "You thought you could hide this? So it's true. You _are_ part ancient. Well then sweetie. Let's see what we get when your baby is born, huh?"

Gray suddenly stopped, sniffed the air, coughed. That smell was back…the one of fresh flowers. Perhaps Korei was up to her tricks again. Or perhaps it was something stuck and rotting in the drains. Whatever. Gray cleared her throat again and replaced the papers in their plastic sleeve. She was hungry, and she knew Shawn would be a long time getting her sandwich.

_In the back of a huge red buggy, somewhere between Junon and Midgar, Juventa Darkhart was beginning to stir. She was awakening. And, deep inside her, so was the primitive matter of her unborn, undeveloped child._

_ Took long enough, didn't it?*grins* sorry if you've been waiting for this *points at number of reviews* one hundred and fifty odd reviews! How cool is that?!? I'm so utterly overjoyed! Seriously! *bounces* ahem…_

_Thank you to everyone who helped me reach this phenomenal total (well it's phenomenal as far as I'm concerned, anyways!) you all know who you are, and I'll thank you all properly next chapter but I don't have your names in front of me right now and I don't want to miss anyone out! Thanks to you all. _

_Planned events for next chapter: Juventa's awakening, some revelations about Gray's little project…such as what 'Number One Hundred ' is and what it might possibly do to Juvi's baby…and there'll be the usual sarcastic bantering between Reno and Vincent, some input from Scarlett, and some random babblings from the wonderful Tye (I love Tye to bits, he's so good to write about! _^_^_)_

_OK, thanks again, not long to go now!_

_~TIO RANK P   _

www.livejournal.com/users/tiorankp

TioRankP@hotmail.com


	30. Chapter 20: The Way Home orBurning Chees...

**_Chapter 30-The Way Home (Or- Burning Cheese?)_**

**__**

_'Hmm? Oh, no, nothing, I can smell burning cheese, that's all'_

_Tye Reynold_

_'He's sick of this skin, it's time to trade it in  
A galaxy of emotions, your soul is what it costs  
We walk the same path, nobody could get in our way  
Dangerously, we passionately never hesitate_

_Keep the soul, that's control  
Keep the soul, (Now you put in the metal) that's control'_

_"Singular Indestructible Droid"_

_Papa Roach_

_'Show me…show me the way to go home'_

_"BBK"_

_KoRn_

_VIII: JUVENTA DARKHART_

_Ms Darkhart is regarded as 'special' for a number of reasons._

_The first, and perhaps most prominent, is the fact that she was born millimetres above pure Mako during the first Lifestream explosion in Mideel (see 'Lifestream, Chapter X) inevitably leading to the ingestion of some undiluted Mako or at least vapour. She has, to our knowledge, matured with no ill effects, which suggests either an inhumanly strong immune system (see 1) or high tolerance for Mako._

_She also survived the second Lifestream eruption two years ago. Whereas most other residents suffered minor ill effects (some rather more serious effects) it is worth noting that not only did Ms Darkhart suffer no ill effects, but also her strength appeared to increase. She is responsible for much of the rebuilding in Mideel, although this has been kept secret for reasons unknown to us. A normal woman of her height (5'8") weight (roughly nine stone) and build (slight to medium) would scarcely be able to craft a single wall with minimal assistance, let alone an entire house._

_1) __5/10, 8.59pm: After a series of tests, it has come to our attention that Ms Darkhart's immune system is identical to that of the normal human. She reacted badly to our tests and went into a coma after being injected with a sample dose of concentrate Zolom venom (we have already given her the antidote) The effects will probably wear off after a few hours, however it is best to keep her under close surveillance. She appears to be hallucinating under its influence._

_2) __6/10 6.23am: 'Number One Hundred' compound successfully administered under my supervision. She has reacted to this in a decidedly negative way; it has not only heightened her blood pressure but also prolonged her coma. Reynold (See Chapter VII) has reacted well, perhaps thanks to the dormant Cetral traits. We hope that this will ensure the passage and enhancement of his Cetral genes to the child. In conjunction with Ms Darkhart's genes, the child should be in possession of impressive power. Only time can tell_

_---MURDOCH_

Tye wrinkled his nose.

"What's wrong now?"

He blinked, cool blue eyes cow-like, and turned to Yuffie, who was staring at him with an exasperated expression. His almost bovine sense of calm seemed to irritate her.

"Hmm?" he murmured. "Oh, no, nothing. I can smell burning cheese, that's all" He leaned back, scratched languidly at his left eyebrow, flicking the ring a few times. 

"Burning cheese…?" Yuffie sniffed the air tentatively. He was right…something _was_ burning, though she doubted it was cheese. It smelled more like petrol. Where was it coming from?

"Cloud" she called over the roar of the engine. "Cloud, can you smell that?"

Almost immediately, Barret's gruff voice chimed in from the passenger seat "I never dun it!" 

"Neither did I!" Cid agreed from his post next to Tye, "Whoever smelt it, dealt it!"

"Whoever denied it supplied it" Tye added cheerily, leaning his head on the armrest. The flopping spines of his hair pressed scratchily against Yuffie's forearm and she pulled it sharply away in irritation. Tye grinned to himself and pushed his head further into her arm. This time there was nowhere to escape to. Yuffie pulled her arm up and rested it above her head, the grimy fabric of the once-white jumper resting against her vaguely greasy hair. She mentally cursed the redhead, who chuckled to himself and sat back upright.

"Whoever made the rhyme committed the crime!" Barret reminded gravely. His seriousness was almost amusing. "Cid, that means it wuz you"

"It was not!" Cid exclaimed, outraged.

"Has Cid farted?" Elena called brightly from the huge expanse of boot space behind Yuffie and Tye, where she, Rude, Tifa, Nanaki and Juvi were all crammed in together. She sniffed the air before exclaiming "Eww! Cid, that's disgusting!"

"I already said it wasn't me!" Cid complained, slamming the armrest in frustration "Goddamn, woman! Do you want a written declaration?"

"Who did it then?" Elena shot back spitefully "Yuffie?"

"Don't even go there, Elena!" Yuffie turned sharply to face the pallid blonde "It's not a fart smell, anyway"

"No" Tye agreed chirpily "It smells like burning cheese" 

"Burning cheese?" Rude questioned.

"Yes" Tye confirmed "Burning cheese"

"But we have no cheese to burn!" Elena pointed out, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world.

"So what? It still smells of burning cheese"

"It's coming from the engine" Barret suddenly announced.

The hubbub faded, sending the buggy once again into blissful silence. Debates over farts and burning cheese were thankfully eradicated by the thoughtful pause. There was nothing more to talk about. Burning cheese or not, the smell was getting stronger. And it was coming from the engine.

"Shit" Cloud muttered, pulling the car sharply to a halt. It skidded suddenly, stuttered to a halt over the bumpy, muddy ground. Junon was just about visible, a dirty grey smudge in the distance. Kicking the seat for effect, he clambered out, landing up to his ankles in filthy grey-brown sludge. Trying to hide his disgust, he pulled his feet out with a wet sucking noise and set about shoving open the front bonnet. This proved harder than he first thought, and the muscle-bound blonde tugged and pulled at the rusting metal sheet for a good minute before Barret joined him in the mire, yanking the bonnet up with one hard tug. Cloud nodded his thanks, watched as the huge man silently accepted it and took his seat again, treading grey-green mud into the newly cleaned carpet. Cloud sighed. _'That's gonna cost me'_ he told himself, averting his world-weary gaze to the gently smoking oil tank.

It was empty.

"Oh man…" Cloud sighed. He was past being angry. He was just drained. He wanted to go home, have some tea, something to eat, a nice, long bath, maybe some good sex with the fiancée. He didn't want to be stuck out here, mulling over what to do with an empty oil tank and a useless monster of a buggy.

"What's wrong, Cloud?" came a light, lilting female voice. He turned, blinking slowly. Tifa was leaning out of the window, arms resting on the sill, dark hair trailing down her arms and the garish red paintwork. 

"Bastard gave us a buggy with no oil" Cloud muttered, kicking the wheel hub one last time before shoving his hands in his pockets. "Looks like we're walking again"

This proclamation was immediately flanked by a chorus of exasperated sighs from Tye and Yuffie, who seemed to be doing just fine in making enough disappointed hubbub for everyone. Cloud eyed the redhead fiercely. _'Don't try my patience, stranger'_ he warned silently. The red-crested boy stopped, stared. His cold blue eyes sent a shiver down Cloud's spine. They were eerily familiar, those eyes.

"What else can we do?" Cloud said, shrugging. "It's not like we can mosey on down to the nearest petrol station and grab some oil now, is it?" 

"We won't be 'moseying' anywhere" Cid eyed the tall blonde fiercely, emphasising the word 'moseying'. He despised the word. Openly detested it. "We might be 'walking' somewhere, or maybe even 'strolling' somewhere, but never 'moseying'"

Cloud shook his head "Point taken, Cid. Okay, let me rephrase it, for the sake of Old Man Highwind: It's not like we can _take a stroll_ to the nearest petrol station and grab some oil now, is it?" he prompted Cid's reaction.

"Far better" Cid offered approvingly. He took a packet of Midgan bought cigarettes from his jacket pocket and threw one across to Tye, who caught it between his thumb and forefinger, holding it out for a light. "Always did think you sounded kinda gay saying it like that"

Tye snorted.

Cloud glared.

Cid flicked his lighter and the end of Tye's cigarette took light, blooming with burning embers. The redhead nodded his thanks and leaned back, enjoying the cigarette and the relaxation that came with it. Yuffie wrinkled her nose and shifted closer to the window.

"So what now?" Cloud asked, leaning against the bonnet in an attempt to stop his feet being sucked further into the mire. "You've seen the ground. It's not like we can get very far without tiring ourselves out. And we can't really go much further in this thing" he slammed a bunched fist on the bonnet of the car as if to punctuate his point. "So…any suggestions?"

"May I suggest that we all hitch a ride on Barret's head" Tye said in a laughably businesslike tone. "After all, it is big enough and flat enough to accommodate us all"

Yuffie snickered. The redhead was quite witty.

"You watch yer mouth, kid," Barret growled.

Cloud rolled his eyes "Any _serious_ suggestions?" he tried again.

Yuffie shrugged. "I'm blank," she announced.

"Don't forget that we've got an unconscious girl with us" Tifa reminded, leaning out of the window "Anything we do will have to take her into account"

Cloud sighed. "Tye" he said, addressing the maniac directly "If we decided to walk it, do you think you could carry Juvi?"

"I'm sure I could" Tye confirmed jovially "Though I personally would prefer to carry her on Barret's head"

"Watch yer fucking mouth!" Barret warned again, this time with more ferocity. Tye seemed unfazed.

Cloud tried to ignore the pair and concentrated instead on Elena and Rude.

"Do you think you could walk, Elena?" he asked.

He watched as Rude dug the little blonde in the ribs playfully. Rude? Flirting? As far as Cloud knew, flirting had been a hitherto unknown and untried concept in Rude's mysterious, stoic world. Elena seemed to be a positive influence on him. 

"I'm sure I could" Elena fought off another rib attack with a giggle. Cloud saw Tifa's face crease into a small smile. "And if I can't walk…Stop it Rude!" she batted his hands away and Cloud swore he saw the bespectacled Turk laugh. "If I can't walk, then he can carry me"

Cloud nodded. Four people sorted out. Barret and Cid were easily big enough and ugly enough to make it themselves. Yuffie might complain, but she was a tough cookie and Cloud knew she'd be fine. Tifa was also easily tough enough to make the distance. Cait could sit on Cid's shoulders or…he felt a Tye moment coming on…he could sit on Barret's head.

All of which left Nanaki. The beast would sink up to his chin in the mire; it was unfair to expect him to even want to cross, let alone be able. Nobody could carry him…he was far too heavy even for someone of Barret's prodigious strength. Yet at the same time he couldn't go it alone…

"What's yer boggle?"

Cloud heard the endlessly cheerful voice and turned to face its owner. Somehow, Tye had clambered out of the car without Cloud hearing him and was now standing on the opposite side of the bonnet.

The redhead grinned cheerily "You look depressed" he said matter-of-factly.

"I'm thinking" Cloud said dismissively.

"About the dog?" Tye tilted his head to the side "Got any tennis rackets handy?"

Cloud was about to retort with a nice biting comment _'Oh yeah, I carry tennis rackets about with me everywhere. Let me just get one from my pocket'_ when he realised what Tye was getting at. Snowshoes. All they needed was four flat, broad things and something to bind them with…

"Yuffie" he said suddenly "Do you have your pocket stars with you?" 

"Yeah" Yuffie answered suspiciously. Cloud sounded like he was scheming. "I always have 'em, Cloud" her hand crept down to where her pocket stars were…safely hidden beneath her jeans in her mesh leg-brace. Eight discs of solid steel, perfect round discs with two slits in either side that, on the surface seemed pretty harmless but could cause major damage if thrown with enough force. They were largely ornamental though…Yuffie had never really possessed enough skill or strength to use them effectively "Why'dya ask?"

"Can I have four of them?" Cloud asked, eyeing the half-asleep Nanaki and his rather dainty paws. Yes, Yuffie's pocket stars would be perfect. 

"Why?" Yuffie asked warily.

"I want to make Nanaki some snow shoes," Cloud said, as if it were the most blaringly obvious thing in the world "So we can get out of this ditch and get home. And I need something to tie them with…Cid, snap the elastic of your pilot goggles, will ya?"

"Fuck off" was Cid's earnest reply.

"Oh, c'mon Cid, do you wanna get out of here or what?" Cloud sighed.

"Course I do, but I'm not too fussed whether the dog stays here or not"

"I'm not a dog," Nanaki protested quietly. His protests went unnoticed.

"Just give me the damn elastic. You have bags of goggles at home"

Muttering under his breath, Cid pulled the goggles from their place atop his head. Previously contained grey-blonde hair rested chaotically against his forehead and he brushed it away distractedly. He grabbed Yuffie's Oritsuru from her belt, earning a quick "Hey!" from the indignant ninja, before cutting through the elastic. He managed to make two decent sized parts from the one loop. Grumbling, he handed all three items back to Yuffie, who placed the Oritsuru back in her belt and handed the two pieces of elastic to Cloud.

"And the stars" he gestured for Yuffie to hand him the four discs.

It was her turn to grumble. Grudgingly, she rolled up the leg of her borrowed jeans and from a little pocket on the back of her leg brace pulled out four of the stars. They were a decent size, probably sharing a circumference with half a grapefruit. She handed them over, silently willing one to cut Cloud's hands. They didn't. He quickly threaded the elastic through the slits, then did the same with a second star.

"We need more binding" Cloud muttered, more to himself than anyone else. "Anyone got rope?"

There was a brief _clunk_ from beside him and, as he turned, Cloud was greeted by Tye's mud-encrusted boot sticking out of the window. No sign of the redhead the boot was attached to, though.

Cloud peered in the car, and saw Tye stretched out on the seat. His head was, much to Yuffie's silent, wide-eyed bemusement, resting quite comfortably in the young ninja's lap while he manoeuvred his other foot to rest beside the first on the sill. 

"You can use my shoe laces if you want" he said, by means of explanation. He looked up, offered Yuffie a brief wink, and then looked back at Cloud, who was shaking his head in utter bewilderment. Had the kid been dropped on his head at birth? It was obvious that he had toys in the attic.  

"Er…thanks" Cloud nodded "Can you unthread them for me please?"

Tye rolled his eyes and, without moving his arms, pulled himself into a sitting position. Yuffie's eyes doubled their already tremendous size. How the hell had he done that? She was a trained ninja and even she couldn't pull herself up that quickly!

With a mutter, Tye lopped his boot off, revealing holey black socks, and pulled the muddy laces through with a few quick motions. He didn't look up once, handing Cloud the lace and, replacing his boot, proceeding to unlace his other boot. When he was done, he wiped his muddy hands on his black jeans and relaxed again, beaming brightly.

"There ya go" he nodded towards the thick laces coiled in Cloud's outstretched hands "They should last you quite a while. They're Cosman made. They build things to last down there" out of the corner of his eye, Cloud saw Barret give a nod of approval. Seemed he had forgotten the kid's 'big head' jibe. 

"Okay" Cloud nodded. "Once we've fit these on Nanaki, we're back on the road. On foot this time…" he paused to allow the flurry of irritated sighs (mostly from Cait, Tye and Yuffie) before continuing "…We're about an hour, perhaps an hour and a half from Junon. If we keep a constant pace we'll be there before midnight. Are you all up for that?"

Grudging nods and mutterings of 'yes'.

"Okay…" Cloud held up the rudimentary snowshoes and waved them in the air "Let's get to work"

"Are you alright, Vincent?"

Jo felt the gunslinger shift beside her. Across the room, sound asleep and wrapped up in a patchwork blanket belonging to his daughter (and made by the mother of one of Jo's former lovers) was Reno. He breathed heavily, not quite snoring, curled up in the armchair. He looked childishly cosy. 

Vincent and Jo sat on opposite sides of the larger sofa. Both were well aware of the cold distance between their bodies. Both secretly wished they might close that gap without offending or upsetting the other. Without rousing the suspicions of the redhead opposite should he awake at all.

"Mm" Vincent murmured. "Tired"

"Then sleep" Jo whispered, turning her head so she was facing him. The room was dim, and all that she could really make out was Vincent's pale profile and fierce, bloody eyes. 

"I can't" Vincent replied, every bit as hushed. He made no effort to look at her. "I can't sleep. If I sleep, I run the risk of waking up as _him_" he shook his head "He tells me he has left me. But I know…he is still there"

"Chaos, right?" Jo sounded as if she was on personal terms with the demonic parasite "I'm sure that if he has promised to leave you, he'll bide his time for a while before returning" a pale hand snaked out towards his and she stopped herself. Best not to. "I think it's safe for you to get some rest"

"I don't" Vincent replied coolly, and that was that. He clammed up again, seemingly unwilling to talk any more about the matter. 

Jo sighed and rested her head on the back of the sofa. Communicating with the dark man was an effort, but an effort no doubt worthwhile. He was a tough nut to crack alright, but she knew that beneath the rock-solid shell there was a warm, gentle-natured man waiting to be set free. He was sick of the skin he was trapped inside; it was a cross he had no choice but to bear. But, with a little effort, perhaps he might be able to trade the skin he loathed so much in for something new…

Kind of like Reno. Shifting her head so her gaze could fall on the sleeping ex-Turk, she allowed a small smile to play at her pale lips. Who'd have thought that Reno Irven Lozano, cold-blooded ex-Turk, harbinger of death for so many innocents, was a natural father? He'd been absolutely amazing with Scarlett; the little girl had lit up around him. It was like she knew…

_"Best that she doesn't know, though" _Jo nodded, seemingly re-assuring herself that she was right. _"If she were to find out…that he was her daddy…she'd want him to stay here. And I couldn't have Reno Lozano living here, with me, like old times…"_

But had those old times really been so bad? No. No, they had been far from bad. The money, or lack thereof, was what had driven her away. The lack of money, temptation from other, more risky and rough men, and that little thing inside her. At the time she had been afraid to tell him. She had thought that he would completely dismiss her. So, before he could leave her…she left him. Pride. That was all she wanted. Her pride.

Reno, for his part, had been the perfect 'significant other'. He was surprisingly loving, quite the romantic. Good in bed. Willing to listen. A good cook. Always there when she needed him. 

She looked away from him. Those days were long gone. Innocent, sweet, naïve Reno Lozano had gone with them. What was left was this…this _husk_. This heavy drinking, foul-mouthed guy with a violent temper…and an endearing 'jack-the-lad' quality…and a drop-dead gorgeous face…and a filthy cackle…and a wicked sense of humour. Not to mention his wonderful way with kids. No wonder the little Wutaian girl liked him! She tugged at a strand of hair, twining it around her finger. Those days were long gone. He was no longer hers, and never would be. 

_"So stop thinking about him naked!" _she scolded herself, giving her hair a hard tug. Harder than she'd intended, because she let out a small yelp.

Vincent turned his head to look at her. "Are you alright?" he asked, genuinely concerned.

Jo untwined the strand of hair and offered him a warm smile. "I'm fine," she told him gently. She watched as his worry melted, gave way to that frustratingly ambiguous blankness he always played host to. 

"What're you thinking about?" Jo asked. She thought the line would come out the way it always did in films…silky-smooth, cheesy. But it didn't. Perhaps it was because she genuinely wanted to know. 

"Nothing much…" he began, and she suddenly felt herself seized by an urge to reach out and slap the dark man around the face. But then he continued, "…I'm just a little bit concerned about the others"

_"The iron man cracks a little" _Jo smiled to herself. She would lever into one of those cracks, start pulling away at his shell ever so slowly. She primed her mental crowbar, ready for action.

"Why are you worried?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. A wave of tar-black hair dropped forward and she brushed it away with one quick motion. "They're all strong"

"Yes, they are" he agreed "But with two wounded? There is all the more pressure on them now. Gray will no doubt be winging her way to them as we speak. How can they possibly defend themselves?"

"I'm sure they're fine" Jo assured.

"I hope so" Vincent nodded.

Jo spotted his human hand, a perfectly formed, long-fingered, pale-skinned specimen possibly hailing from before the operation to turn him into a half-human monster. She couldn't help it; gently, she reached out, took it in her own, stroked the cold knuckles with a soft thumb.

He seemed a little shocked, jumped a bit, relaxed again. He looked down at her, and there was a ghost of a smile on his face.

"Calm down" she cooed gently, running her thumb rhythmically along the ridges of his knuckles "They're a strong bunch. Anyway, I don't think Gray will be after them just yet"

"How do you know that?" Vincent seemed rather curious.

"You forget…I worked for her once" She felt his long fingers fold round her hand and forced back a smile "She likes to play games. She likes to let people think they've won. She's a crafty little fuck"

"Oh, we know that" he agreed. "How did you start working for her?"

Jo let out a long, jaded sigh and looked to the ceiling briefly before turning back to him "…it's a long story" she dismissed, before adding "Well…long-_ish_"

The dark gunslinger tilted his head "We're not going anywhere" he said in a low voice, and there was a hint of play in his tone. Was Vincent 'I'm so stoic and cold that I can rip out your heart without even flinching' Valentine letting his guard down? Once again, Jo primed that mental crowbar. 

"After…after I left Reno" she cleared her throat slightly to highlight her discomfort "I became part of a Midgar gang. Sector 8. We used to work the Wall Market. That's how I know Tye. After Midgar got trashed by Meteor, we appointed ourselves 'Shinra Binmen'..." relishing the look of bemusement on Vincent's face, she set about clarifying "Basically, we set ourselves a little mission. Remove every trace of Shinra. So that's what we did. After about a year or so, we got a call from some guy…Loki Gray being the leading lady. She told us that her organisation were doing our job on a larger scale. She wanted us to join them. So, looking for bigger and better things, we joined. I found out a little while later that they were after Tye. Looking back on it, I think that's why they wanted us to join them. But when they realised Tye wasn't coming back to us…they decided to take things into their own hands" she broke off, taking a breath. "I'm sorry, I talk too much"

"Not at all" Vincent dismissed "It's a fascinating story"

"When I realised you guys were from AVALANCHE…that's when I realised what Gray was doing. After all…if you're really trying to eradicate Shinra…why would you want to destroy the very group that broke Shinra in the first place? It just doesn't make sense"

"Gray is twisted" Vincent mused. "I genuinely believe there is something wrong with her"

Jo snorted, "Yeah" she agreed, "She's a sick puppy. She suffers from 'Evil Bitch Syndrome'"

This time there was no mistaking it; Vincent laughed. His thin lips curved upwards and a low rumble escaped his throat. Vincent laughter. Jo smiled in return and felt him squeeze her hand. 

"If such a syndrome exists, I will happily eat my gun," he told her frankly.

Jo poked his arm playfully. "Get some sleep, you," she said with a smile "You'll be fine, I promise you" she unlinked her fingers from his, stood up, stretched briefly. "Scarlett will be up bright and early tomorrow morning, but I'm sure Lozano will take care of her" she smiled and continued in a seemingly wistful tone "He'd make a great father, don't you think?"

"I think he'd make a wonderful father," Vincent agreed.

Jo snapped out of her temporary reverie and, without a word, leaned forward, pressing her cold lips briefly against Vincent's. If he was shocked at all, he was doing a good job of hiding it. 

"Goodnight Vincent" she said warmly, smiling. With one last wave, she left. 

As he heard her gentle footsteps on the stairs, he pressed his human forefinger to his lips. 

  __

Thanks to Chuu, Cythen, Arietti, Drakonlily, Crystal, Kaos, Heather Cat (keep writing ^_^), Carter Tachikawa (happy birthday XD), Scarr, DarkAngel666 and wHIte-cHOcoLaTE for making my Christmas that bit merrier with your lovely reviews! *Hugs all of ya* 

More Vincent/Jo fluffiness. I don't know where it'll lead…after all there's the small matter of Reno's child to think about…but perhaps there's some grounds for a relationship. We'll have to see!

_What else…? I'm rather proud that I managed to devote most of a chapter to Cloud and Tye. Tye because I love him to bits *hugs Tye* and Cloud because I find it impossible to write about him! Hope I did a good job…_

_Plans for next chapter: Juvi's awakening (which I keep delaying for some inexplicable reason) a little…'incident' involving Tye and Yuffie ;-) and some more of that 'sick puppy' Gray. And Shawn gets his comeuppance…_

_Suggestions, comments and general feedback more than welcome._

_Thanks everyone for reading!_

_~TIO (The Voodoo Fyrefly)_

_TioRankP@hotmail.com _

_www.livejournal.com/users/tiorankp_


	31. Chapter 31: Highway Songs

**_Chapter 31-Highway Songs_**

**__**

_'Look! Grass! It's a miracle!"_

_Tye Reynold_

'I held you down 

_On the day of the Lord_

_31 marks_

_Like the day I was born_

_I called you beautiful_

_Before I knew you_

_Watch me destroy it _

_And set myself free'_

_"Nothing Gets Nothing"_

_American Head Charge_

_A/N: Advanced warning: this chapter contains references to rape. Though it's nothing big. Just thought you should have fair warning. So here it is ^^ ~Tio _

"YOU'VE NEVER HEARD NELLY THE ELEPHANT!?!"

Tye stopped in his tracks, fixing Yuffie with one of the most disgusted looks he could muster. 

Yuffie stopped too, almost frozen solid by the coldness of his glare. "N…no" she gulped, genuinely fearful of his sudden mood swing. "Should I have?"

"Yes!" Tye said adamantly, as if her reply had been the most ridiculous thing in the world "Nelly The Elephant was the anthem of my youth! Or close to it!"

"I seriously have never heard of it" Yuffie shook her head apologetically

"You must have" Tye dismissed. Shifting his arms so Juvi lay a little closer to his chest he cleared his throat and intoned in a deep voice "Nelly the Elephant packed her trunk and said goodbye to the cir-cus…off she went with a trumpety trump, trump, trump, trump!" he looked expectantly at the little ninja.

"Nope" she shook her head again.

Tye tutted. "You were deprived"

"Good lord, will you two _walk_?" Cid barked from the front of the little congregation. "It's probably near to midnight and you've been singing those fucking ridiculous songs since we started walking!" Tifa turned, eyed the trio, smiled. She then sidled back up to Cloud. From the back it looked like the pair were Siamese twins joined at the hip. Usually Yuffie made a string of jibes at their closeness, but somehow she didn't have the heart today.

"You'll know this one" Tye assured, breaking back into a slow walk. He paused a moment, seemingly trying to remember the words, before, with a grin, he began "Oh the grand old Duke of York, he had ten thousand men…"

Yuffie's eyes lit up and, in an unexpectedly beautiful falsetto, she continued the song "He marched them up to the top of the hill and he marched them down again…"

Cid would have scolded the pair again had he not been rendered near-speechless by the fact that the little ninja brat, whose whiny, snot-faced squealing had irritated him for three long years, had a knock-out singing voice. 

"And when they were up they were up, and when they were down they were down…" they continued, eyes aflame with merriment, staring each other intently in the face as they nodded each other on "…And when they were only half way up, they were neither up nor down!" they both stopped, both beamed at each other. Cid shook his head in typical 'grizzled old guy' fashion and cleared his throat, a signal that the pair should stop grinning at each other like freshly lobotomised idiots and start _walking_. Thankfully, they picked up on his signal and, with a final burst of genuine, tired laughter, set off again.

                                    _________________________

Shawn McLeary placed his jacket on the table and sat down. The end of a far too long day was almost upon him and he wanted to go home. Home to his fridge, his television and his headache tablets. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, momentarily stopping the jagged shooting pains that were zipping across his forehead. Somehow, in the last hour or so he had acquired the most splitting headache. Maybe he was coming down with something…oh well, he thought, releasing the pressure. A day or two off work would be nice.

He swivelled in his chair, opening his eyes as he did so. The corridor leading from his open office was far too narrow. It was nigh on impossible to get any furniture through. It was dark and dingy. And there was a guy standing at the end of the corridor.

Shawn blinked hard. Yes, there was a guy at the end of the corridor, a guy he had never seen before. A guy with thick, messy black hair, held back from his face with a bright red strip of fabric, which was secured at the side of his head in a clumsy knot. He wasn't especially tall, but was lean and muscular, arms toned, build that of a swimmer or athlete. Shawn watched nervously as the guy took a few silent steps forward, the colour of his vest changing from pitch black to dirty green as he stepped in and out of the pools of light thrown forth by the weak wall-lamps.

And then a voice. Shawn felt his headache triple suddenly as the voice cut through him, like an arrow through and apple, like a knife through butter. A musical female trill, which clearly didn't belong to the guy slowly approaching _'Unless'_ Shawn thought through the eye-watering, brain-numbing pain _'Unless it's a really rough-looking chick'_

_*~So, you condone the forced conception of a baby born with no foreseeable future, do you Mr McLeary…?~*_

"W…who's there?" Shawn whipped his head round in a sudden panic, eyeing the black space beneath his desk. The distant man's mouth hadn't moved, so his 'transsexual' theory was out. "Korei…?"

_*~You'd allow…no, assist Gray in turning a child into a monster? Don't you think what you've done is intervention enough?~*_

"Who the fuck is that?" Shawn gulped, all his muscles stiffening, hackles on end. "How do you know all this?"

_*~Number One Hundred will make that child into a monster. It will change at irregular intervals into a beast of some sort, most probably triggered by anger or fear. With the added benefit of its parents genes, it will be unusually strong, have magical capacity beyond anyone's wildest expectations. This is what you're aiming for, isn't it?~*_

"Okay" Shawn straightened up, tried to sound braver than he felt, tried to cover up the quiver in his voice and the shiver in his limbs "Stop fucking about. Who the fuck are you, where are you hiding, how do you know this?"

_*~Dad told me~* _the voice came again. Shawn winced. Each mental message was like having a red hot branding iron driven up both nostrils. "Korei Brynne, stop it now, or I swear to Bahamut I'll have Loki on your case"

_*~I'm not Korei. Oh no, I've been dead a long, long time, and Korei's very much alive. For now, anyway~*_

"Bullshit" Shawn snorted, flecks of rabid spittle escaping his lips as he ranted. "You're no fucking spook. Tell me who you are, now"

_*~Odain will tell you~*_

In his anger, he had forgotten the man in the corridor. He turned again. The man had slowly walked all the way up and was standing in the doorway. 

Now Shawn could see him clearly, he saw good reason to be afraid. The guy wasn't especially tall…he'd got that right, but it was his _face_…his dark eyes were shadowed with dirt, face smeared with thick oil and crusted blood, lips bloody and ripped, clothing torn, skin deathly pale. His limbs hung from his body in a manner too loose to be those of a normal functioning human. Did he even have a left hand? Shawn couldn't see in the gloom, but he could make out a dramatic shortening from the guy's left wrist.

_"Shinra fucking binmen?"_ he spat. His words didn't come from his mouth, weren't procured from his lungs, didn't escape his non-moving blood-mash of a mouth. They came from all around, thousands of repetitions at once, a chorus of identical sentences bombarding the frightened Shawn in a phantasmal aural assault. _"You fucking fake. It's people like you that lead me to this early fucking death. People like you who kill"_

"W…what…?" Shawn managed to spit, eyes bulging from their greasy sockets. He swallowed hard, watched as the man's ubiquitously blank expression and bleak gaze were lifted to him. 

_"What happened to you?"_ came another voice, a voice Shawn definitely did recognise. _"__You were Tye's friend. You were my friend. It makes me want to puke when I watch you prostitute yourself like this. Why sell your talents so cheaply when you could have used them to put an end to these naïve Shinra-wannabes"_

"Brody, you cheap slut" Shawn managed to murmur before the man's deep, rumbling voice, thick with a strange Midgan/Cosman accent, interrupted the dead girl.

_"You don't deserve anything more than death,"_ he told him, austere eyes locked onto his, blood trickling from the jigsaw of gashes that was his mouth _"Death at the hands of she that you murdered_" there was a pause, a choking sound, then, like a faulty radio transmission. A flashback again. Shawn's voice. Brody's voice.

_---'Get OFF me!'_

_'Act like a whore, Wells, and I'll treat you like one'_

_'Don't you dare touch me!'_

_'Don't like that? Oh dear. Well shall I move my hand, then?'_

_'Stick it up your arse, motherfucker'_

_'If you weren't so fucking beautiful, I'd kill you right now'_

_'Leave me ALONE!'_

_'Don't fight me, Brody. You're a slut. It's your vocation'_

_'I'd never fuck you. Never'_

_Laughter. Thick, genuine, cackling laughter. 'I'm afraid you haven't got much choice, babes'_

_'DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME! Stop it! You're hurting me!'_

_'Keep still, Brody, or I really will hurt you'_

_'You're hurting me!'_

_'Enough talking'_

_Tears. The sound of weeping. And then nothing but static---_

_"How do you like that, McLeary? Does that turn you on, you fucking whore?"_

"No…no way…" Shawn choked, snot and tears worming their way down his greasy, acne-ridden face "Stop it…stop it…"

_"You raped her, took her virginity, took her pride, then you took her life"_

"I didn't mean it!"

_"Oh, so it happened by accident?"_

"N…no…"

_"I've heard enough from you, you snotty little eunuch"_

"Leeeeave meeee alone…" Shawn dissolved into tears, sobbing into his hands, rocking in his seat, assaulted verbally by a million identical voices. Voices of the dead, eating at his brain, bringing him to reality.

_"Shut up and take this like a fucking man"_

_Shawn's screams, pain-wracked, searing, lung-bursting, echoed loud throughout the immediate vicinity._

                                    __________________________

"I heard this song in a dream once" Tye said conversationally. Yuffie nodded, secretly amazed that the redhead wasn't even a bit tired from carrying the unconscious girl's dead weight. "I woke up in the morning and wrote everything down. 'Cause I remember how everything went, you know? And I dreamed that the band who played it were called Corn…only they spelled it with a 'k' and put the 'r' backwards" he broke off, laughing "I mean, Corn? They couldn't even spell it properly! If there really was a band called Corn I'm sure they'd be laughed off every stage on the Planet. Lucky it was only a dream"

"How did the song go?" Yuffie asked.

"Um…" Tye squeezed one eye shut and bit his tongue in an effort to remember "It was something about…something…on…a…leash…er…That's it!" his face straightened into a smile and his brilliant blue eyes brightened up "I can remember…it was called 'Freak On A Leash'…and the chorus went…" he clucked his tongue in an attempt to replicate drums, perhaps to count himself in "'Something takes a part of meee, you and I weren't meant to beee…a cheap fuck for me to laaay…something takes a part of meeee…'" he was quiet for a second, then with a handsome, devilish grin he opened his mouth and released a sound like an enraged Bandersnatch. Midway between a snarl, a yell and a furious snort, he bellowed a series of seemingly made-up words at the top of his lungs.

"BOOM na-da MMM na-da EMA! Na BOOM na-da MMM na-da EMA! Na BOOM na-da MMM na-da EMA! Na BOOM na-da MMM na-da EMA…GO!"

"Will you shut up?" Cid turned, infuriated. Tye's mouth snapped shut and he shot the pilot a wide-eyed, pitiable look. "Sorry, Cid" he said almost sadly.

"Good" Cid muttered, turning his back again.

Yuffie eyed Tye, confused.

Tye grinned and gave Cid the finger.

Yuffie nodded approvingly.

From behind them, the lumbering Nanaki, struggling with his snow-shoes, nodded sagely.

_'It starts'_ he thought.

                                    __________________________

It was one of Shawn's lackeys who found the dismembered cadaver of their leader. Sitting on the chair in an apparently businesslike pose, clothes spotless, jacket hanging loosely off his shoulders. The only giveaway was the great slit in his stomach from which spilled all manner of steaming entrails, soaked in thick, fragrant blood.

The lackey, a young man by the name of Adam Greenwood, took one look at the disembowelled man, leaned over and was violently sick in Shawn's wastebasket. When he was done, he wiped his mouth coldly on his sleeve, eyed the body, turned, ran as fast as he could down the corridor screaming "Commander Graaaay! Commander Graaaaaaaay!"

He didn't see the message. Scrawled on a Post-It note that sat alone on Shawn McLeary's desk, punctuated with bloody fingerprints, was the message: '_Odain Biggs-out of sight, out of mind…for now'_

 __

                                    __________________________

"Time for a break"  
A barrage of thankful sighs. Cid and Barret both sauntered over to the line of jagged rocks that overlooked the huge crater, perched themselves on stones, shared Cid's cigarettes between themselves.

Tye peered over the edge. A few feet below, on a little outcrop, was a patch of unspoilt greenery. His eyes grew wide and greedy and his mouth formed a perfect 'o'

"Look!" he proclaimed, calling Yuffie over "Grass! It's a miracle!"

Cloud took a little walk to the edge, peered over, nodded. "Yeah. Real grass," he agreed coolly. 

"Considering we've been walking through slushy mud shit all evening, I'd say that's worthy of worship" Yuffie interjected dryly. "I mean…look" she gestured to the endless plains. There was something about trekking to Junon that evoked pleasant memories of Reno…even though she had been only semi-conscious, she could vaguely recall sharing that journey with him, spending most of it nestled against him. Kind of like the dark-haired girl and Tye. She felt sort of disappointed to think that she was his girlfriend. If there was no chance with Reno, then this guy seemed like a decent enough replacement. 

_Reno_…she had pretty much given up on him-he was so unattainable! So perfect that she was definitely unworthy of him. Judging by their cool parting earlier they didn't really have any grounds for a relationship anymore. _'Such a shame'_ Yuffie murmured to herself, and she genuinely meant it _'I really do like Reno…an awful lot…and perhaps…just maybe he feels the same'_

Tye jolted her out of her thoughts. "Yuffie, look" he nodded in the direction of the open ocean.

She squinted into the distance. The rolling grasslands were obscured by darkness, turned into lumpy black patches by the absence of natural light. Where the moon offered some light the ground was turned a pretty ink blue and the depth and true grossness of the sludge was there for all to see. But that wasn't what Tye was gesturing at. Beyond the grasslands, beyond the bruised monotony, the ocean lay, an undulating mass of evening blue silk illuminated by the crescent moon. Black lines etched into the ever-moving waves by the playful shadows. All notions of depth destroyed by the illusion of a seemingly impenetrable surface. The thick smell of salt lingered in the air. Home wasn't far.

"That is so cool" Yuffie commented with a smile, visibly impressed.

"Isn't it?" Tye agreed jovially, cradling the sleeping girl close to him. They stood for a moment, not man and woman but boy and girl, both entranced by nature's beauty.

Watching them, Cid took the cigarette out of his mouth, blowing a circle of grey round the crescent moon. "First time I've seen the pair of them quiet since we started out" he commented dryly to Barret, who nodded in agreement. 

"Ya think we'll make Junon by morning?" Barret asked hopefully.

"Dunno" Cid replied.

There was a moment of silence.

"You miss your wife and kid, right?" Cid said, more a statement than a question.

Barret sighed, took a draw of the cigarette "Don't you?"

"Yeah" Cid admitted, copying his actions "I miss Shera like hell"

Barret snorted "Ya give her hell most of the time"

"Just my way, I guess"

Another long pause.

"Ya know, y'should cut her a little slack" Barret mused philosophically, shifting his great mass across so he was further away from the pilot and his stale smoke. He blew a grey plume of his own into the air, watched it dissipate across the standing, silent figures of Yuffie, Tye and Juvi. "C'mon Cid, she's been there for ya for the best part of fifteen years, right? Least ya could do is show her y'appreciate it"

"What, you mean like martyr myself the way you have?"

The great man snorted and Cid searched his face for signs of meaning "Ain't no martyr, Cid. I'm doin' what I wanna do. Elmyra is the reason my little girl is still alive, 'n' I love her fo' that. So I'm gonna devote the rest of my life to her and my daughter. Sounds like a fair trade to me"

Cid nodded a little. "You think it works out, though?"

"I know I does" Barret nodded sagely. "Jus' look at Cloud and Tifa…" peering in their direction, he trailed off with a disgusted look. "Okay, don't actually _look_ at 'em unless you like watchin' tonsil hockey, but ya get my meaning. They live for each other, and look where it's got 'em"

"To the middle of muddy nowhere with two old guys, a dog with snowshoes, two pain-in-the-ass kids, a half-dead girl and two fuckin' Turks" Cid replied sourly. 

"With the respect and reverence of every person on the Planet" Barret reminded.

A long moment of silence.

Cid stubbed his cigarette out on the rock next to him and blew out the last of the stale smoke, clouding the fresh night air with used nicotine. "Wonder how Vince and Papa Turk are doing?"

"Prob'ly haven't said a word t'each other" Barret stated between draws "I'm pretty fuckin' shocked that Vince decided to go along. He hates the guy"

Cid grinned wryly "Don't suppose he hates Reno's ex very much though, does he?"

"You don't think the spook likes her, do ya?"

"I think so"

Barret stubbed out his cigarette, disbelief scrawled messily across every one of his features "Well that'd be a turn-up for the books" he announced gruffly, getting to his feet. "That'd be a damn miracle"

Cid looked from Barret to the still silent Yuffie and Tye.

"Miracles do happen" he reminded quietly.

                                    _______________________

"I want the security tapes checked" Gray slammed her bunched fist on the desk, making Adam Greenwood jump. He still tasted the sour tang of stomach acid. "Go and tell Manning I want all of them checked! How did this happen?" she leaned back in her chair, grabbed twin handfuls of thick blonde hair "How? Security's tight, nobody could've got in!"

"Unless there's been some kind of mutiny" Korei added helpfully. Settled on a beanbag with a bag of crisps and a hand held console of some sort, her emerald green eyes never left the screen. Tinny, chirpy music escaped the little box. She seemed unaware, or unbothered by the huge white wings extending from her back, weighing her down into the peculiar slumped position she was currently in. 

"Shinoda…" Gray's eyes widened and her mouth formed a thin pale line as she pressed her lips together hard. Of course. Now it all made sense. Shinoda had failed to retrieve Juvi and, rather than return, had decided to rebel. "So…Shinoda Brynne finally grew a spine" the blonde girl stood up, dusted down her hands, eyed Adam Greenwood fiercely. "Greenwood, go tell Manning to check every single one of those tapes. And…" she eyed another soldier, sitting at the back of the room with her eye on the preoccupied Goddess "Kathryn! Alexia Kathryn!" 

The soldier looked up.

"Tell Blake I need to speak with him," she said "Regarding Shinoda Brynne. And Fergal Murdoc. Tell him it's urgent"

"Ma'am" Alexia Kathryn nodded and saluted.

Korei looked up for a moment. Her youthful face and usually animated features seemed a little downcast.

"What are you gonna do with my dad?" she asked quietly.

"Nothing, Korei honey" Gray said sweetly, taking her seat again "I'm gonna tell him off a little. That's all"

"Oh" Korei nodded. "That's okay then"

Gray grabbed a pen from the holder on her desk and scribbled down a few names on a yellowing note pad: 'S.Brynne, F.Murdoc, A.Greenwood" 

She grabbed a red pen from the same holder and drew thick lines through each name, smiling cruelly.

                                    ___________________________

They were just about to set off again when a small yelp from Tye Reynold sent the entire group into confusion for the umpteenth time.

Standing stock still, the redhead's huge sapphire eyes were trained on the girl in his arms. His lips were slightly parted, expression shocked.

"She's awake" he choked.

Then he burst into tears again. Sinking to his knees, he buried his face in the girls hair, squeezing his eyes shut, sobs wracking his thin body. "I'm sorry, Juvi, I'm so sorry…"

Tifa knelt down beside the sobbing Tye. Placing one gloved hand on his shoulder, she spoke clearly and calmly to the girl, who was muttering inaudible somethings in a thick, frightened voice.

"It's okay, Juventa" she whispered, brushing some of her thick black hair out of her pale face. As she gazed calmly into her cold blue eyes, she was suddenly seized by a fit of compassion. The girl was scared. The girl was cold, weak, and completely ignorant of the thing growing inside her.

"Who…?" she managed to croak, her gaze moving up. She caught a glimpse of flopping scarlet and her weary features contorted into a smile of recognition "Tye? Tye? Why are you crying. Tye? We're okay, honey"

Tifa smiled. _'Even when she's weak she protects him'_ she thought, watching as Juvi raised a shaky hand up to Tye's exposed cheek and ran her delicate fingers across it "We're okay, Tye"

"Are you alright, Juventa?" Tifa asked gently, watching as the girl turned her head slowly and carefully to face Tifa fully. She narrowed her eyes a little, evidently confused by the other woman, confused by their location, confused about…well, about everything. 

"I'll be fine" she answered, her voice a little rough but otherwise healthy-sounding "But I do have a few questions…who are you? Where am I? And…why is Tye crying?"

Tifa smiled a little "Tifa Lockheart, of AVALANCHE" she answered, inclining her head a little as means of greeting "We're approaching Junon…we've escaped from Midgar City. We were all being held captive…it's a long story" she finished, sensing the need for more answers. "And…well…I guess he's just happy to see you again"

Juvi's pale, full lips contorted into a smile.

"Tye" she patted the redhead's shoulder as she stood. "C'mon Tye, we're gonna finish this little trip of ours"

Tye pulled his head away, pulling strands of thick black hair away from his tear-streaked features. He still sniffled a little, tears still escaped his cold blue eyes.

"I'm so glad to see you, Tye" Juvi murmured, reaching one arm up to his neck and anchoring her weak hand around his shoulder. 

He opened his mouth to reply but could say nothing.

"Let's go home," Tifa said gently.

And, against surprised stares, the redhead shook his head, drew himself up defiantly, drew a shuddering breath and set off again.

Oh good god, this fic is never going to end, is it! Never fear, 'cause there's not long to go now. Maybe looking at between 4-6 more chapters before the end? I shouldn't set myself a limit-I'll never stick to it! 

_Okay, thanks to everyone r&r'ing… Chuu, Cythen, Arietti (go read her fics, before I get out the cattle prod!) Drakonlily, Crystal, Kaos, Heather Cat, Carter Tachikawa, Scarr, DarkAngel666 and wHIte-cHOcoLaTE, and anyone else I shamefully neglected!_

_I'll give you all proper thanks when I eventually finish this fic. So stick with me, not long to go now…_

_Plans for next chapter: That Yuffie/Tye incident I'm planning, Jo/Vincent goodness, the return home, Jessie and Wedge make a post-death appearance along with the lovely Biggs, and Gray goes nuts. Again._

_Thanks a lot for reading this and sticking with it!_

_~TIO_

_TioRankP@hotmail.com_

_www.livejournal.com/users/tiorankp   _


	32. Chapter 32: About A Girl

**_Chapter 32-About A Girl_**

**__**

_"Are you not hunky-dory, Yuffie?"_

_Tye Reynold_

_'I need an easy friend_

_(I do) with an ear to lend_

_(I do) think you fit this shoe_

_(I do) won't you have a clue?_

_I'll take advantage while_

_You hang me out to dry_

_But I can't see you every night_

_Free'  _

_"About A Girl"_

_Nirvana_

_'I miss Yuffie'_

Reno sat bolt upright, rubbing his eyes. That little voice in the back of his head, that little voice that, in any other person would have been called a 'conscience', had been musing over what exactly was wrong with him. He felt oddly lethargic, listless, tired. And now he knew why.

_'I miss Yuffie. I miss her energy. I miss her stupid comments and that look she gives when she thinks I'm being lewd. I miss her eyes and her smile. I just miss…her'_

Vincent was asleep on the chair opposite. This was unusual. In all the time he had known the dark gunslinger, Reno had never seen him drop his guard. He was constantly alert. So to see him sound asleep, breathing steadily and rhythmically like a normal human being was a little disconcerting.

He shifted. The sudden burst of cold his movements brought forth chilled him to the bone and he shivered involuntarily. A brief yawn escaped his lips and, after letting it go, he rested his aching head back on the cushion and pulled the scratchy warmth of the patchwork blanket around his neck. 

_'I wonder what Yuffie's doing right about now?'_ he found himself thinking once again of the young ninja. Was she crammed up in the back of the buggy with Barret and his foul body odour on one side and Cid's cigarette smoke on the other? Or was she safe in bed, warm and dry, under the watchful eyes of Cloud and Tifa? Reno didn't know. 

One thing was for certain: he wished she was here with him.

                                                                _______________________

It was a quarter to two in the morning when nine bedraggled, tired people and two creatures finally dragged their cold, muddy bodies through the front door of Elmyra Wallace's huge house. 

Huddled on the couch were Shera, Elmyra, Reeve and Marlene. The youngest of the four was curled up in her stepmother's lap, sleeping soundly. Reeve looked like he was about to drop off at any minute. All but Marlene stared hopefully at the front door as it opened and Cloud and Tifa entered, followed by the rest of the team.

"Cid!" Shera's muted exclamation was the first sound in the room. The mouse-haired mechanic threw her arms around the tired pilot, who, too weary to argue or complain, allowed the smaller Shera to nestle herself against him. His own arms found their way awkwardly around her small frame and he held her.

Elmyra nodded Barret over to the couch, where he exchanged brief kisses with his wife and sleeping daughter. The sound of low murmuring provided an unintelligible backdrop against which others could start their own conversations.

"Home" Yuffie managed to utter before she sprawled herself out on the rug. She pressed the side of her face against the soft fibres, eyes closed, breathing shallowly. Her clothes were filthy. Elmyra noticed this, eyeing her with some concern. _'Wild adventures won't cure her illness'_ she thought to herself, making a mental note to scold Cloud in the morning. 

Her eyes then settled on the suddenly nervous Tye, and the barely conscious girl nestled against him. 

"And who might this be?" she asked suddenly.

All conversation suddenly stopped.

All eyes settled on Tye, expectant.

"Tye Reynold, ma'am" he nodded politely "This is my friend, Juvi Darkhart" he nodded to the semi conscious girl resting in the warm cradle of his arms. Elmyra noted, with some distaste, that Juvi was dressed only in a ragged hospital gown. She must be freezing. She made another mental note to get the girl a warm blanket once the formalities were over with. 

"Would it be alright if they stayed a while?" Tifa enquired hopefully, wringing her frozen hands in a bid to get warm "They haven't got anywhere to go, and Juvi's pre…"

"…not too well" Cloud interrupted just in time, fixing Tifa with a gaze that said _'Not yet'_

She seemed to understand, nodding quietly.

"I see" Elmyra mused. Her mouth was set, a thin hard line in her face. Her eyes were stern. For a moment, Tifa seriously thought that she was going to tell them that there was no room, not at this inn. But as she watched, the older woman's features melted into a soft expression of pity and compassion…for a moment, Tifa could see Aeris in Elmyra's face. Then she nodded to the stairs.

"If we do a little bit of room-shifting, we should fit you all in" she said sagely, examining the tired party. "I see Vincent and Reno aren't with you?"

"They'll be here," Cloud said.

From her post on the carpet, Yuffie eyed Cloud, grey eyes encapsulated by a sort of bitterness.

_'Who are you trying to convince?'_ she asked him silently, watching as Tye set Juvi on the sofa, as Elmyra ordered Barret to take her upstairs, as Cloud and Tifa exchanged loving glances. _Are you trying to convince Elmyra? Or are you trying to convince yourself? What if Reno never comes back? What if he dies? What if he decides he's had enough? Then what? Will you even care?'_

"Are you alright?"

Yuffie rolled onto her back. The sudden movement sent a fresh wave of tiredness through her and she worked to shake it off. Tye was standing above her, towering over her in all his lean, redheaded splendour. He wore a bemused expression. He inclined his head to the side.

"Why are you laying on the floor?"

"Tired" was Yuffie's answer. She moved arm up to her face, shielding her eyes from Tye's cold gaze. "Too tired"

"Ah" Tye nodded wisely. "I think you should sleep then"

Yuffie removed her arm from her eyes in one vicious swipe. "Ya think?" she exclaimed sarcastically "Good god, Tye, you really are a genius"

"I know" Tye beamed.

Yuffie rolled her eyes and moved her arm back up. There was something about the gentle weight against her eyelids that brought forth a strange breed of comfort. She took a deep breath, inhaled the scent of home. The scent of air freshener and pleasant musk. 

A light pressure on her stomach broke her moment of contemplation.

She moved her arm from her eyes, peered over her chest (which, admittedly, wasn't much of an obstacle) On her stomach, grinning wildly, sat a very muddy Cait Sith.

"Hi!" he exclaimed, righting his crown before offering her the brightest of grins.

"Get off" Yuffie whined tiredly, shifting a little in an attempt to dislodge the creature. Somehow, it managed to balance. The scratchy carpet fibres were beginning to irritate the back of her neck and she wriggled a little more for good measure.

"What's yer boggle?" Cait Sith asked, attempting to mimic Tye's deep, chirpy tones. 

"You, sitting on my stomach. That's my boggle" Yuffie announced "There's also the fact that I'm freakin' exhausted. That's also my boggle"

"Ah" Cait Sith mused, never moving from Yuffie's stomach "I see. Many boggles"

"Too many" Yuffie moaned _'Especially considering I have more than just those two things to think about…like where Reno is…and whether he's gonna come home'_

"Is Yuffie suffering from a case of the boggles?" Tye asked from his post high above. He suddenly swooped down into a leaning position, knee on par with Yuffie's shoulder. "Are you not hunky-dory, Yuffie?"

"Hunky-dory?" Yuffie scarcely had time to muse over this odd phrase before Tye's long fingers began to dig their way into her sides. Yuffie instantly recoiled; Tye Reynold was tickling her! Why? Cait Sith hastily abandoned ship as Yuffie drew her knees up to her belly in an attempt to break the hold. She writhed and wriggled frenziedly, trying in vain to escape his hands. She couldn't help but giggle; it had been a while since anyone had bothered tickling her like this. Not since she was younger, since the days of her mock-fights with Shake. 

"Are ya feeling better now, Yuffie?" Tye grinned, just audible above her own hysterical giggles and breathless cries of "No, no!" She managed to roll onto her front, but Tye chased her, pinning her down with one knee hard against her slender back, both hands mercilessly attacking her ribs. She shrunk into a tiny ball, rocking from side to side in a bid to escape, her feminine giggles mixing harmoniously with Tye's low, chuckling laughter. She was completely in submission. 

Suddenly, Yuffie's instincts took over. She grabbed Tye's knee, used her strong thighs to tip him over onto his back. He let out a muted yell of surprise as the unexpectedly strong brunette managed to manoeuvre herself out of his death grip and straddled his waist. Now it was her turn. With a grin, she began to tickle the redhead, digging her fingers into the soft flesh of his belly, watching with satisfaction as he doubled up and began to chuckle uncontrollably; cold tears began streaming down his face and she intensified the assault, moving up to his sides, laughing all the while. She hadn't had such fun in a long while. 

The fun was broken by a stern female voice from above them.  

"Yuffie Kisaragi" said Elmyra, her tone carrying a lecturing air "You should be resting"

"Awww…I'm not tired anymore," Yuffie complained, pulling herself from her position atop Tye. He too righted himself, sat up straight, shot Elmyra a look of wide-eyed apology.

"Yes, but that's not the point" Elmyra watched as she unfolded herself out into her full five-foot-two. The Wutaian girl had a look of defiance about her face that was both hackle-raising and very becoming of her. "You know you're not well. Give it a couple of days of rest, good food and medicine and then you can tickle to your heart's content. But until then…" she broke off, giving Yuffie a maternal frown of the highest order. 

"Yes ma'am" Yuffie sighed, folding her arms. She looked away for a moment, rolling her eyes, before looking back up. 

"Resting starts now" Elmyra announced "Bath, then bed"

"Yes ma'am" Yuffie repeated dutifully.

"Now" Elmyra said, and the sternness of her tone made Yuffie hastily reconsider any planned smart-arse comebacks. Offering Tye an apologetic smile, she trudged off in the direction of the bathroom. She was going to run herself a bath.

Elmyra watched her go, then sighed. Turning her weary gaze to Tye, she smiled in a similarly apologetic manner "She can be a real handful" she said conversationally "A lovely girl, that Yuffie, but a little too headstrong sometimes"

Tye said nothing, merely continued to stare at Elmyra.

"I suppose you'll be wanting to know where you'll be sleeping" she put her hands on her hips and pointed to the stairs. "First on the left. You'll be sharing with Cid…is that okay?"

For the first time since Elmyra had started speaking, Tye's face took on a definite expression. A mischievous grin taken straight from the Yuffie school of expressions. Elmyra felt a sense of foreboding, but pushed it to the back of her mind.

"That's fine" Tye announced cheerily.

_'So…Tye's in with Cid, Tifa and Cloud with the sick girl, Yuffie with Elena, Rude in with Reeve, Marlene in with Shera, me and Barret…that's everyone, isn't it?' _Elmyra did a brief mental tally. Satisfied, she nodded to herself.

"First on the left" she repeated, for the benefit of the grinning redhead. "If there's anything you need, ask Cid"

"Oh, I will" Tye grinned, getting to his feet. "Thanks, Ms Barret"

Elmyra couldn't help but chuckle "Elmyra, dear" she corrected gently. "Goodnight, Tye"

Tye watched the older woman depart, watched her breath a jaded sigh. The grin on his face doubled in size until it was wide enough to bridge Nibel river. Sharing a room with Cid. Again. Oh, this was going to be so much fun…

                                                     _____________________

_'Lying in my bed_

_Telling me you're scared_

_Of me when I'm god _

_Of me when I'm dead_

_Love me when I'm god_

_Love me when I'm dead_

_Dead…_

_I don't want to be shut down'_

_"Shutdown"_

_American Head Charge_

Manning, a tall, thin man with shoulder length brown hair, ferociously handsome dark eyes and thick rimmed black glasses, did not look like your average security guard. In fact, he probably resembled a young, up and coming rock musician more than anything. He was the kind of young man that most of the women working for Gray (and indeed Gray herself, when she was alone and unafraid to act somewhat human) would sit and dribble over for hours on end. He was the kind of young man that, when he leaned over to retrieve something, would suddenly find his backside subject to the hungry gaze of many a young female soldier. Not that Manning really minded. Not that Manning even noticed.

"S'up, Adam?" he inclined his head a little as a form of casual greeting to the obviously unsettled young soldier.

"A lot's up, Manning" he said fearfully, pointing towards the huge wall of black-and-white monitors behind him. Manning turned a little, eyed the camera, turned back. "Do you ever watch the cameras?" 

"These?" Manning used a thumb to gesture to the wall of monitors behind him "I usually do, but today I was a little bit busy"

Adam Greenwood raised a quizzical eyebrow "Too busy to do your job?" he asked doubtfully.

Manning grinned. He looked like the cat that had gotten the proverbial cream. And all the other cats. "I, er, invited Rebekah up here for a while…" he shrugged, unable to hide his grin and the mischievous spark in his eyes "You know how it is between us"

"Yeah" Adam grinned without humour, leaning back on the wall "The way you two carry on, you'd think you were the first two on the Planet to discover sex"

"Yeah, er, well, why are you here anyway?" Manning seemed more than a little embarrassed by Adam's candid commentary  "Other than to intrude on my private life and embarrass the hell out of me?"

"Ah, the cameras" Adam nodded wisely, motioning to one of the top-left screens "See that?"

Manning squinted. It was the security camera that resided in the office of Gray's man-bitch, Shawn McLeary. Only it wasn't Shawn sitting on the chair but a lump of oozing mess being picked apart by three men in white plastic suits. Grey splashes adorned each pristine set of plastic overalls. _'Well'_ Manning thought to himself, tapping his index finger idly against the desk _'It's certainly not ink'_

"Shit, dude" Manning whistled, turning back to face Adam "What the fuck happened?"

"We don't know" Adam answered, "If you hadn't been screwing Rebekah, you might have been able to tell us"

"We can check the video," Manning offered, choosing to ignore Adam's last comment.

"That's what Commander Gray wanted" Adam nodded, watching as the taller man pressed a button on the screen, releasing a small black cassette.

"Bear with me a moment" Manning said, head bowed. He placed the cassette in what appeared to be a hand held video camera. "I'm gonna play it back using this" he pressed a button on the top of the camera and another on the television it was attached to. "We can pinpoint the exact moment of the, uh, accident, and we can use the computer to take stills. If we need them" 

Both men waited patiently. Manning pressed the play button. The screen flickered into life just as Shawn was walking into his office.

"Timing!" Manning congratulated himself, placing both palms flat on the table. They watched as the greasy man slung his jacket across his desk, slumped into his chair, pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I reckon he's gonna explode" Manning whispered excitedly.

Adam rolled his eyes.

On the screen, Shawn swivelled in his chair, stopped swivelling when he was on par with the doorway. They watched intently as he leaned forward, apparently spying something…or someone…in the corridor leading up to his office. After a short pause, he suddenly recoiled, spasmed, as if wracked by a sudden pain. 

"Whoah" Adam's eyes widened "Maybe he is gonna explode?"

"Patience, grasshopper" Manning murmured, pulling his chair over with his heel. He sat down, pushing his glasses further up his nose and eyeing the screen even more attentively. Over the fuzzy static came Shawn's muffled voice. _"Who…who's there?…Korei?"_

"No way!" Adam's eyes widened even more. "Not the Brynne kid!"

Then a buzz of sound-consuming static, followed by another garbled muttering _"Who the fuck is that…how do you know all this?"_

"Hey, he's hallucinating!" Manning observed cheerily, poking Adam in the arm for good measure. "He's hearing voice, Ad!"  
Another burst of static, this time longer than the last. Manning furrowed his brow "What's with the interference, dude?" he asked nobody in particular. He leant forward to twiddle the tuning dial on the television when the static dispersed and Shawn's voice was once again audible. _"Okay"_ they watched as he straightened himself up, voice taking on a defiant air _"Stop fucking about. Who the fuck are you, where are you hiding, how do you know this?" _a very short pause, a very short burst of static, then another barked exclamation _"Korei Brynne, stop it now, or I swear to Bahamut I'll have Loki on your case"_

"I think I understand now," Manning whispered quickly over the burst of ensuing static "Someone's talking telepathically, like Korei does. That's what the interference is"  
"Ssh!" Adam hissed sharply, jabbing at the screen. Shawn had turned back to the doorway, and had shrunk back into his seat. Someone was out there, but the camera was at a very awkward angle and showed only the very start of the corridor. Shawn recoiled, moved back in his chair. More static, this time lower pitched, more like the whirring of a refrigerator. He muttered something about Brody. Then interference.

"Shit, dude!" Manning pushed his glasses further up his nose and turned the volume all the way up "Listen!"

Adam moved closer to the screen. Above the hissing of interference, a voice was audible. A female voice, whimpering, crying. '_Get OFF me!'___

"I'm tellin' ya, telepathy!" Manning said excitedly, jabbing at the balled-up figure of Shawn McLeary on the screen. A conversation, a role-play, played out above the background of buzzing noise. Both men listened. The female voice, scared, defiant. The male voice, lecherous, superior, undoubtedly Shawn's.

 _'Stick it up your arse, motherfucker'_

_'If you weren't so fucking beautiful, I'd kill you right now'_

_'Leave me ALONE!'_

_'Don't fight me, Brody. You're a slut. It's your vocation'_

_'I'd never fuck you. Never'_

_Laughter. Thick, genuine, cackling laughter. 'I'm afraid you haven't got much choice, babes'_

_'DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME! Stop it! You're hurting me!'_

_'Keep still, Brody, or I really will hurt you'_

_'You're hurting me!'_

_'Enough talking'_

Both men were able to hold back their exclamations long enough to hear the harrowing sound of the female crying. They exchanged wide-eyed glances.

"Shit" Manning said, for the umpteenth time, only this time it wasn't so much a blunt expletive as a drawn-out, almost frightened statement "Brody Wells. Fuck me, she's come back for him"

"Look!" Adam jabbed the screen. Manning turned, caught sight of Shawn's stomach bursting open, shreds of skin, flesh and innards exploding outwards like some vile firework. Shawn's scream, high-pitched, feminine-sounding, escaped the speakers in a loud burst. Manning winced at the sound. Dripping, Shawn got up, fumbled for his coat, managed to shrug it on before another burst sent a string of foul blood jelly across the room, hitting the filing cabinet with an unfeasibly loud squishing noise. Defeated, the dying man sunk back into his chair, breathing laboured, punctuated with quiet, failing sobs. Then it was silent again.

"Fucking hell, we've got ghosts on the loose" Manning stood up shakily, combed back his long dark hair with one pale hand. "I'm getting Rebekah up here, then I'm getting the fuck out. You up for that, Ad?" 

"Think I'm sticking about after I've just seen that?" Adam replied incredulously "Shit, dude, you must think I'm insane! I'm not waiting for Brody to come after me. I'm getting out of here"

"What about Gray?"

"What _about_ her?" Adam, mimicking Manning's earlier actions, ran a shaky hand through his mop of unruly blonde hair "Fucking hell, let her go it alone from here, dude. She's big enough and ugly enough to do this herself"

"I'm getting Rebekah up here" Manning repeated shakily, fumbling for the phone on his desk "We're going to Junon. My brother lives there. We'll be safe there"

"It's times like this I wish I had been nice to the bitch" Adam muttered to himself, pressing his back against the wall. His eyes scanned the darkened room nervously. Spooks on the loose. The vengeful spirit of Brody Wells, uberbitch of the compound. Nobody was safe. Especially not him.

                                                            _________________

"Na na na na, na na na na, he-ey he-ey, goo-ood-bye!"

Tye's sixteenth languid repetition of the low-pitched chant was enough to break Cid. The pilot, dressed in an old t-shirt and boxer shorts, leapt out of his bed like he'd been stung. Tye sat up in his bed, eyeing the furious old man with a mixture of fear and amusement.

"Will you please…PLEASE be quiet!?!" Cid sounded more tearful than angry "I am ridiculously tired, I need sleep, and I cannot sleep if you insist on chanting!"

"But I like singing" Tye replied innocently, drawing the thin blanket up to his chin.

"Then why don't you go sing somewhere else?" Cid snarled angrily, blue eyes fierce in the gloom "I'm sure Yuffie would be willing to join your freakin' choir"

"Hey…" Tye's eyes widened and Cid mentally slapped himself. The ninja and the weirdo, singing, at three o'clock in the morning…before he could protest, Tye had leapt from his bed and was pattering down the hallway, no doubt for an impromptu sing-song with the young ninja. 

_"I'm sure Elena will give them hell if they start singing"_ Cid mused as he got back into bed. Silence was golden. Silence meant sleep. And if Tye's absence meant silence, so be it. He settled back down.

A minute or so went by, and his drift into sleep was interrupted by a knock on the door.

He looked up. A very disgruntled Elena stood in the doorway, blonde hair a static mess, dressed in blue check pyjamas. 

"I am _so_ going to kill you, Highwind," she growled.

"Hey, calm down Turkish" Cid eased, rolling on his side so he could face her.

"I'm going to sleep in Rude's room," she announced in a low voice. "If I can still hear those two singing from there, I am going to personally cut your manly parts off. Am I making myself understood here?"

"Yes ma'am" Cid nodded.

"Good" Elena exited without further comment. From down the hall, Cid could distantly make out the quiet strains of some crazed nursery rhyme. 

"God damn PMS-y Turk" he muttered.

A/N Good god, sorry about the length of this chapter…I haven't written a long one like this since I think chapter 9! Anyways, next chapter will no doubt be a short comedy interlude before the fic closes in on the end. You can probably expect more loooong chapters like this, because I have lots to do now…Reno and Vincent's return, Gray's revenge, Juvi's realisation, I have to put in a good Tye/Yuffie (Tyfie?) moment before I end this Reffie. There will be more Reffieness, more Jo/Vincentness (Josentine?) and more…stuff. Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing…I'm gonna add a final epilogue thanking you all PROPERLY when I finally finish this fic. Not long now. I promise.

_Thanks for sticking with this fic!_

_TIO (The Voodoo Fyrefly)_

_TioRankP@hotmail.com_

_www.livejournal.com/users/tiorankp_

Or read my original stuff (my babies!) at www.fictionpress.net under the username Voodoo Fyrefly

Roll On Chapter 33-'Reach and Touch'


	33. Chapter 33: The Beginning Of The End

**_Chapter 33-The Beginning Of The End_**

**__**

"Shit, dude, you really don't listen do you? She's asleep. Engaged in the act of sleeping. You know, eyes shut, dead to the world sorta thing?"  

_Reno Lozano_

'What more can you put me through, what happened? 

_What do you, what do you want?_

_What more can you put me through, what happened?_

_Inside?_

_I don't even care_

_I don't even mind_

_Everything you do will burn against you'_

_"No Murder"_

_Ill Niňo_

"Duhn duhn duhn duuhn, duhn-duhn, duhn-duhn, duhn duhn DUHN duhn duhn DUHN duhn duhn come, as you are, as you were, as I wa-ant yo-ou to be-e"

Yuffie Kisaragi sat up in bed, enthralled by the throaty singing of the bedraggled Tye Reynold. The band, he claimed, were another product of a dream, much like 'corn', only this time they were called Nirvana. Tye had expressed his confusion on naming a band after a state of blissful non-existence, but claimed that the song they had performed in his dream had been 'even cooler than the corn song' and so he had taken it upon himself to perform it sans backing track. 

Unfortunately for the enchanted young Ninja, his surprisingly tuneful efforts had also caught the attention of a certain bald Turk. Minus his sunglasses and dressed in a greying t-shirt and jogging bottoms, Rude looked not so much intimidating as outright strange. There were dark, puffy circles beneath his beautiful blue eyes, tainting an otherwise attractive face. In a voice akin to that of a man tortured endlessly for five hours straight, he addressed Tye directly.

"Please, please, for the sake of our sanity, go to sleep" he pleaded, low voice edged with rough sleep. "Please?"

Tye eyed him with the same frustratingly ambiguous expression he employed for Cid. For a moment, he said nothing; merely eyed Rude as if he were some sort of bizarre space alien. Then he nodded, dived beneath the sheets, was still. On instinct, Yuffie jerked her legs away from him, huddling up in her own little ball at the other end of the bed. She exchanged shocked glances with Rude, wide-eyed gaze travelling from the bewildered Turk to the ball of Tye and back again. 

Rude rubbed the back of his neck, not knowing quite what to make of the redhead's odd behaviour. Shrugging a little, he turned and left without a further word.

As he pulled the door to, Tye emerged again, his end of the blanket pooled around his waist. He was grinning again, perfect teeth set out in an endearingly mischievous manner. 

"They keep telling me off for singing" he announced matter-of-factly, poking at his eyebrow ring with one long finger "I must be bad"

"Nah, you're not" Yuffie re-assured, relaxing again. Something about Tye made her feel fine about being so frivolous and childish. It seemed he was too much of a big kid to know how to hurt anyone. Too innocent. Too busy having fun with his life to be cruel and heartless like everyone else in the big, bad, wide world. She felt fine about letting her guard down around him. "But Tye, it's about four in the morning, and I think people are a little bit too tired"

"I know" Tye mused. The sheer energy contained (barely) in his constantly moving pupils suggested that he was not at all tired. "I guess I'm too worried to sleep"

Yuffie seized his last comment as a chance to try out a 'Tye-ism' for herself. Leaning forward, she placed her head on her drawn up knees, feeling her thick raven hair fall across her face. She swept away a few vagrant locks, replacing them behind her ears, before enquiring in a low voice, "What's your boggle, Tye?"

The effects were instant; the grin on Tye's face, which had been slowly fading, suddenly replaced itself. His eyes twinkled with merry mischief, from his throat came a low rumble, which may have been the beginnings of a laugh.

"What's my boggle?" Tye asked, amused. Yuffie found herself smiling, despite the overwhelming tiredness that had suddenly draped itself across her like some sort of invisible blanket. "My boggle is the fact that, at twenty-two years old, I'm gonna be a daddy" he leaned back, the grin suddenly gone, replaced by a thoughtful frown which certainly didn't suit his animated features. "And the mummy's a girl I've only known for a few days. And she doesn't even know she's pregnant!" he lifted his head to face Yuffie, eyes wide and confused, frightened, angry and deeply upset all at once. A tumult of emotion. She had seen such expression in Reno's eyes not long before…the expression that had caused her heart to melt for him and her love to grow for him. And here was Tye, a young man alone in the world, faced with fatherhood, scared of what was to come. 

"What am I gonna do?" he asked, not so much a question to Yuffie as a question to everyone, to Juvi, to Gray, to the listener in the sky and the listeners in the Lifestream. "I'm really scared…"

The first tear rolled down his cheek, stopped at his lip, was clumsily pawed away. It was replaced moments later with a second, joined by a third. Before she could count a fourth, he was weeping steadily, wiping at his eyes furiously with his hands and sleeves, blinking them away, trying his best to conceal them.

Usually, when faced with someone in tears, Yuffie would pat their shoulder, murmur a few words of comfort, pray silently that they'd be okay. She had never been especially adept at dealing with human emotion…she wasn't blessed with a natural maternal instinct like Tifa, or a drive to help and comfort like Aeris had. When it came down to it, she was pathetically ordinary, pathetically human, pathetically…pathetic.

She bit her lower lip, watched Tye tear uselessly at a straggly lock of knotted scarlet. Just like with Reno, she had no idea to do. Here was a person, usually so full of life and cheer, admitting defeat. Another pillar of strength crumbling to the ground like an ancient monolith destroyed by a million years of weathering. So, like with Reno, she did the only thing she thought would help. 

Leaning forward, she looped her thin arms around Tye's slender shoulders and drew him to her in a shaky embrace. He didn't resist her; his forehead met her collarbone in a gentle clash and he wept into her nightshirt without question or concern. Her tiny hands stroked the soft fuzz of his shaven head, fingers running smoothly across the slightly spiky surface. From time to time they would get knotted in tangles of blood red, and she would work deftly to smooth his hair out again. From her mouth came a series of murmurs, Wutaian whispers taken straight from the lips of her late mother. 

"I don't know what to say to her" he said between shaky gulps of cool night air "She's gonna hate me so much"

"It's not your fault" Yuffie soothed. It was strange, this need to hold him and bring his tears to a stop. A hidden maternal instinct? Possibly. Her own odd breed of love? Maybe so. But as she sat, swaddled in thick blankets, cheek pressed against Tye's knotted hair, she suddenly realised that she had never felt the need to help another human being before. Not once. Her entire life had been based on herself, up until the Lameious mission. Hadn't she almost sacrificed her life to save Reno from the creature's deadly magic? That had been an absolute first; not only had she put her life on the line for somebody else…that somebody else had been her sworn enemy.

_'But not any more'_ she mused, pausing to wipe a tear away from where it lingered on Tye's cheek. _'We're not enemies anymore. I don't know what we are, but I know that I don't hate him like I used to'_

Tye lifted his head, shifted a little so there was some breathing space between him and Yuffie. He seemed a little sheepish, no less teary. He pawed at the tears rolling down his cheeks, bright blue eyes swollen and red. 

"I'm sorry" he murmured gently, his voice very un-Tye in its throatiness

"Don't be" Yuffie assured softly, clasping her hands together in her lap. "You're allowed to have a few boggles"

Tye smiled through his tears "This is a big boggle" 

She gestured to the empty bed a few paces across the tiny room "Sleep this one out" she advised, feeling more like her mother than ever before. "And in the morning we can all decide the best way to go about it"

Tye nodded obediently, like a child following his mother's orders. He shuffled off Yuffie's bed, crawled into the empty one, pulled the thick greying blanket up to his chin. Laying on his back, he settled into the old bed. It smelled strongly of washing powder, and of Elena's sweet, feminine scent. 

When she was satisfied that Tye was settled and comfortable, Yuffie sank back down in her own bed. Feeling the comforting warmth of the blanket, she closed her heavy eyes; aware only of Barret's thunderous snores from down the hall.

And before she slipped back into unconsciousness, she heard a tiny murmur, almost inaudible; escape the lips of the nearly asleep Tye.

"Thanks"

                                                             ******************

While they slept, embroiled in their own personal 'boggles', Loki Gray slipped into the front seat of her battered black van. In the passenger seat sat a fearful-looking Adam Greenwood, hands bound by a length of steel chain. In the back of the van, watched closely by a curious Korei Brynne, were Manning and a leggy brunette (presumably his Rebekah) both bound in a similar manner. Rebekah was gagged, a thick strip of torn white cotton pressing her tongue to the floor of her mouth. Manning's face was lacerated just below his eyebrow, and dribbled dark red blood down his eyelid, smeared across the lens of his thick black glasses.

"I cannot express just how upset I am that the three of you wanted to leave. Without even telling me!" Gray exclaimed, clicking her seatbelt into place. She turned the key in the ignition; the van started up with a roar and a splutter "Didn't you think I'd understand?"

"That's not…" Greenwood began, but he was cut off by Gray, who turned to face him whilst reversing out of the garage "DON'T FUCKING INTERRUPT!" she snarled, skidding to a sudden halt when she realised her rear view mirror was slightly askew.

Rolling down the window, she leaned out to correct this minor fault "And Manning! Charlie Manning, I never thought in a million years that you would ever end up with plain old Rebekah Corgan! God, not when you have half the female population of Midgar on your case!"

Perhaps wisely, Manning said nothing. He manoeuvred his hand so that he could grasp Rebekah's lean fingers.

She rolled the window back up again, offering Korei a sweet smile before reversing once more, this time all the way out of the garage. Veering sharply, she then pulled out of the compound, onto the dirt road, and slammed the accelerator down. The van's occupants, including Korei, went flying into the back of the seats. Manning's glasses slid off, landing with a clatter on the hard floor of the van. Korei seized them immediately, reflexes lightning-quick, and placed the oversized spectacles on her own face. Predictably, they were far too large for her elfin features and sat awkwardly on her face. In any other situation, Manning would have laughed. 

"Shit, slow down!" Greenwood panicked, watching the sparse traffic in the other lane zip past at a ridiculous speed. Gray had her foot firmly on the accelerator. The speedometer showed 60 miles per hour and no sign of slowing down. Gray swerved her way dangerously down the road. Greenwood leaned back in his seat, praying with all his being that if they were going to die it would be quick and as painless as possible.

"If I go any slower, we won't reach Junon in the planned two hours" Gray reasoned, eyes fixed on the darkened road ahead. The headlights were on full beam. Anything in the road would be immediately visible. It didn't matter anyway; anything in the road would be crushed under the wheels of the speeding van. "We have to get there soon, or we may lose Juvi and Tye completely. And we don't want that, do we?" she let the question hang in the air unanswered. 

_'Fucking crazy bitch'_ Manning thought, wishing he could reach up and wipe the blood away from his face. The slit beneath his eyebrow was stinging like crazy, and the cold blood was tickling his cheek as it dribbled lazily down his face. He could see Rebekah next to him, tears running down her face, fearing for her young life and that of her lover. 

Manning leaned over so his mouth was just by her ear and whispered "I love you, 'Bekah" Kissing her cheek gently, he leaned back against the cold steel of the van and allowed every jolt and bump to grind through him, jarring the base of his spine, intensifying the ache in his head. It seemed Korei was engrossed in the activity of wiping clean his glasses on the black cloth of her t-shirt, a garment modified so the huge wings sprouting clumsily from her slender back could protrude without trouble. 

Gray side-eyed the speedometer. 75 miles per hour. Roughly two hours from Junon. They had enough fuel; the route was all planned out. She had her weapon, her human shields…Greenwood, Manning and Corgan were perfect for that particular purpose…and she had the backup. Lameious. The creature lurking in the depths of the ocean, biding its time, waiting for the word of its master before unleashing its power and fury upon the lazy harbour town. The plan was simple; kill AVALANCHE, take Tye and Juvi, destroy Junon if she felt that way inclined at the time. 

Two hours from Junon.

Not long to go now.

                                                    *************************

Shinoda Brynne sat in his office, picking at Post-Its and shredding odd bits of paper. His own nervous tic…it wasn't pistachio shells like Murdoch, but it was destructive enough. 

It had been twenty minutes since Gray had announced her departure for Junon. She had told him that she was taking Korei with her, and that once her mission was complete she would kill her. That had been the last thing she'd said before cutting him off and leaving him with only the dial tone to protest to. 

He ripped a whole sheet of paper in half, throwing both sides to the floor along with the thick carpet of home made confetti he'd created in the past twenty minutes. He was practically helpless. There was no way he could go it alone against Gray. He knew her, true, but he didn't know inside her mind. Not like some people working alongside her. But all those people were far too loyal, or scared, or downright sneaky to share that information with him. They were all brainwashed by the company to do whatever they were told. Except one…

Shinoda snatched the phone from his desk, frantically flipped through his thick black phone book until he came to the name he was looking for. Josephyne Avison. The only person who hated Gray enough to divulge information about her internal thoughts and motives. Dialling the number with one stubby finger, he sat back and waited for the dark haired girl to answer.

                                                    **********************  

Five twenty five in the morning, and Jo's phone suddenly spluttered into life.

Reno leapt to his feet as if he had been stung. The patchwork blanket that had formerly been wrapped around his lean body fell to the ground uselessly. Bleary eyed, he scanned the room for the source of the sound.

He located the small black box on the far table. Dragging himself across, he fumbled for the handset and lifted it to his ear.

"Yuh?"

"Jo?" the voice at the other end enquired.

"Nuh, she's asleep" Reno mumbled, rubbing one eye with a balled-up fist "Who's that?"

"Who's that?"

"It's me. Who are you?"

A pause. "It's me," the voice answered cautiously

"Right. Nice to meet you. Now goodnight" Without further word, Reno slammed the handset back down and prepared to go back to sleep. As he turned his back, the phone began to ring again.

Snatching the receiver again, he lifted it to his mouth. "Who's that?" he snapped irritably.

"Me again" the voice returned "Put Jo on"

"She's asleep! Didn't you listen to me the first time?"

"I did, but I need to speak with her"

"Well you can't"

"Who's that?"

"Me"

"Who's me?"

"You don't know who you are?"

"No, I don't know who you are"

"I'm me"

"What's your name?"

Reno sighed. "Reno Irven Lozano, but if I was a girl my mother was going to call me Christine"

"That's nice. Where's Jo?"

"Shit, dude, you really don't listen do you? She's asleep. Engaged in the act of sleeping. You know, eyes shut, dead to the world sorta thing?"  

"Can't you wake her?"

"Not unless I want to die"

"Can't you risk it?"

He sighed again. The stranger on the other end of the phone was either a) a salesman with very bad timing skills or b) a very desperate guy with a very big crush. Either way, he was irritating. "Why do you want her?" he asked irritably.

This time it was the stranger's turn to sigh "Mad woman heading for Junon, using my only daughter as a weapon, going to kill a lot of people. Need her help to avert certain disaster"

As soon as the word "Junon" sank in, Reno's eyes snapped open. He was suddenly horribly awake. Junon. Yuffie. Destroying Junon meant destroying her. No way. Placing his hand over the receiver, he hollered "Jo-ooo!"

There was a long pause. Then, a weary female voice "Wha-aat?"

"Pho-one!" he hollered again, placing the receiver to his ear "Hang on, she's on her way"

"Thanks"

Stumbling, Jo grabbed the phone off Reno. Her black hair was all over the place, blue eyes decorated with dark smudges just beneath the lower eyelid, dressed in an old t-shirt and shorts. "Mm?" 

"Jo, it's Shinoda. I'm sorry to have woken you up, but I really need your help"

"Mm-hmm?"

"Are you okay?"

"Mm-hmm" 

"Well…Gray's on her way to Junon. She's got Korei in the van with her…as soon as she gets what she wants, I know she's going to kill her. I have to get her back, and I know you have friends in AVALANCHE. What I'm asking is that you come with me as soon as possible and we can stop her"

"Mm" Jo nodded, turning to Reno "Gray's heading for Junon" she said, voice thick with sleep. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Vincent finally stir, quick garnet eyes catching the meagre light from outside. "Your friends are there, aren't they?"

Reno nodded.

"Shinoda, I'd help you, but I have a little girl here and I can't leave her alone again"

Reno suddenly placed his hand on Jo's shoulder, turning her to face him. "Bring her with us" he said, not so much a suggestion as an outright command.

"Are you insane?" Jo exclaimed, but Reno cut her off. "Bring her with us. I'll look after her while you guys do what needs to be done"

Jo eyed him doubtfully.

"I won't let anything happen to her," he promised solemnly "She's my little girl too, remember. I love her as much as you do"

"Shinoda" Jo said, still side-eyeing Reno "Okay. I'll do it. But you have to promise me that you won't let anything happen to my baby"

"I will lay down my life for her, if need be"

"Promise me"

"My word is my bond. You know that, Josephyne"

She paused a moment, watched Vincent stand up across the room. "What time will you be round?"

"Ten minutes enough time to prepare?"

"You owe me, Brynne"

"I owe you my life, Avison" with a click, the great man hung up and Jo was left with the dial tone, just like Shinoda had been only twenty minutes earlier.

Jo hung up, turned to the dark man, who had re-holstered his gun and was flexing the claws on his crude metal hand "Vincent, we're…"

"I know. I heard it all" he interrupted coolly, pulling his tangled hair out of his face "Josephyne, Reno and myself will guard Scarlett for all we're worth. What you're doing is truly admirable"

Jo was thankful for the lack of light in the room…without it, the gunslinger would have seen the blush working its was up her cheeks "Thank you, Vincent" she said politely. 

For a moment the three stood in tense silence.

Then Jo set about grabbing seemingly random objects from the table…a lidded cup, a box of crayons, a small packet of dried prunes…and shoved them into the pockets of her overcoat, which hung over the back of the chair. "Reno, go get Scarlett ready" she commanded, grabbing a small fork and shoving it in her top pocket "Not much time to get ready"

"When do we leave?" Reno asked.

Jo eyed the wall clock, squinting through the gloom. "Eight minutes time" she answered, grabbing a random building block "So get ready"

Silently, Vincent grabbed his PHS and dialled Cloud's number.

                                                        ****************

Cloud woke to the incessant bleeping of the PHS in the trouser pocket of his SOLDIER uniform. Echoing Reno's actions barely five minutes ago, he sat bolt upright, grabbed the PHS from his pocket automatically, and pressed the 'answer' button.

"Hello?"

"Cloud, this is Vincent. It is of the utmost importance that you listen to me and take in what I'm saying. Are you listening?"

"Yes" Cloud rubbed the back of his neck. Why was Vincent being so pushy all of a sudden?

"Good. Loki Gray is heading to Junon. Given the speed with which Shinoda suggested we leave, I'd imagine she's not too far away. Prepare your materia, get ready for a battle. This could be the last time we fight"

"Oh, great" Cloud shook his head to fight off the sleep threatening to overcome him "Thanks, Vincent. You heading back here?"

"We'll be there within two hours," he promised.

"See you then" Cloud pressed the button again and replaced the PHS in his pocket.

"What's the problem?" Rude asked, sitting up in his bed. Elena, who had joined Rude in his bed after the singing incident, pulled herself up into a slouched sitting position. Reeve also sat, evidently awoken by the bleeping PHS.

"Gray's on her way" Cloud said gravely. "Looks like this is going to be the big one, guys"

Rude mused this for a moment. Then, reaching across to the bedside table, he grabbed his sunglasses and placed them over his insanely bright blue eyes. Clearing his throat, he uttered a phrase so indebted to his Turk history that it made Elena smile to hear it.

"Let's get to work" 

As you can see, this fic really is coming to an end! Only got to deal with the final battle now. Perhaps three chapters maximum, not including my little 'thanks' notes!

_Speaking of which, I'd like to thanks everyone who's read and reviewed this fic, and I'd like to give a special thanks to those people who put me on their 'favourite' list. I really am honoured!! You will all be thanked properly, I promise!_

_Anyways, not long to go now, like I said. This fic *will* end, and I'll try and do the best job I can in finishing. Suggestions, constructive criticisms and reviews of all kinds (except flames) are welcome! _

_Thanks so much!_

_~TIO (The Voodoo Fyrefly) _

_(Further comments to TioRankP@hotmail.com) ___


	34. Chapter 34: Piece by Piece

**_Chapter 34-Piece By Piece_**

'We can cut through, maybe catch her up. We may even be able to cut her off, if time allows' 

_Shinoda Brynne_

_'But it's worth fighting for_

_It's still worth fighting for…_

_'Cause nothing ever lasts forever_

_We're flowers in this vase, together_

_You and me_

_It's bringing me down_

_Tearing me down_

_Piece by piece'_

_"Piece by Piece"_

_Feeder_

'Excuse me please, this is my life you're messing with  
And I am tired of telling you   
This is what I wanna do  
And I'm asking you  
Don't stand in my way

_Before you stand in front of me  
Before you would stand in front of me'_

_"Where I Stand"_

_Vacant Stare_

Racing along the twisted Midgan highways, Gray's battered black van had never looked so intimidating. An ungainly hearse, chugging along the potholed road with unearthly speed and stealth, the black paint glimmering in the sickly moonlight like some foul, hellish skin. It was the only vehicle on the roads at this ridiculous hour, and probably the only vehicle sturdy enough to undertake the arduous journey from the dilapidated outskirts of Midgar, across the wild grasslands, the mountain pass and into the sleepy town of Junon. Perhaps Loki Gray was the only driver with both the grit and the mentality to undertake that journey. 

The van veered wildly to the left, smashing effortlessly through the thin plastic roadblock barring the exit from Sector Four. A lesser vehicle might have suffered damage. Gray's behemoth van escaped unharmed. For a brief moment the van stalled, seemingly cogitating over which of the dirt tracks it should follow. Then, spluttering back into life, it took the left path, kicking up a cloud of thick dirt and dust, which, like a shapeless phantom, took to the skies, slowly drifting apart as it lazily ascended.

                                                            ****************

Reno shepherded a half-asleep Scarlett down the stairs, clutching an overnight bag and a small, threadbare stuffed rabbit. Dressed only in her blue nightdress, the thin "Chocobo blue" nightdress, she stumbled down the stairs, rubbing her eyes and complaining vociferously about being woken. 

As soon as she reached the foot of the stairs, Jo scooped her up, allowing her daughter to rest her all-too-weary head on her shoulder. Black met red in a beautiful clash of colour, and Reno found himself absently wondering whether his hair and Jo's had ever clashed that way, perhaps when they were sleeping, or kissing, or even during sex? 

Didn't matter now, anyway. He shouldered the overnight bag and handed the rabbit to Scarlett, who tucked in between her tiny body and that of her mother. Seized by a sudden paternal instinct, he grabbed Scarlett's pink jacket from where it hung on the banister and put it over her shoulders. She pushed her arms through the sleeves and snuggled back up against Jo, blue eyes drooping dangerously. Her face was split momentarily by a yawn, before a few thick red locks fell before her face, obscuring it from view.

Wordlessly, Vincent held the door for the two females. Governed by a sense of outdated chivalry, he nodded them through before deciding to do the gentlemanly thing and hold the door for the other redhead.

Reno accepted this gesture without even thanks, waiting for Vincent to close the door before making the short trip down the path towards where Shinoda's night blue van sat, chugging noisily. It was far less grand and intimidating than Gray's hulking vehicle, but looked big enough and ugly enough to take the rough journey to Junon.

Reno opened the passenger door and scrambled up, into the seat, shutting the door and clipping himself in tight. He craned his neck, watching as Jo placed Scarlett in one corner, clipping the sleeping girl in securely, before claiming the middle seat as her own. Vincent followed suit, neglecting the seatbelt. _'Maybe vampire freaks don't have to worry about going through windscreens'_ Reno mused, refusing to meet the eye of the huge man sitting in the driver's seat. Something about him was apprehensive about meeting the steely gaze of the man they were trusting to get them safely to Junon. Without him, Yuffie and the others would surely perish, or at least suffer. But who was to say that he was trustworthy enough…and a good enough driver…to get them to Junon in time? He kept his gaze low and his expectations lower.

"She's gone the long way round" Shinoda's low voice was only just audible above the harsh rumble of the engine "We can cut through, maybe catch her up. We may even be able to cut her off, if time allows"

"Then go!" Reno implored, thumping the dashboard for emphasis. Shinoda regarded him curiously for a second before silently slamming the van into 'drive' and exiting the slums via the huge metal gateway. 

Jo gave her home one last wistful glance before letting her eyes rest on the sleeping child. So innocent. So naïve to all that was going on around her. Gray had taken Shinoda's only daughter and turned her into a freakish monster. And now she was going to do the same with Juventa's child. What if it had been Scarlett? What if it was her baby Gray had in her sights, wanting to experiment on and maim and mutate?

Never. She would never allow that. Not her baby, not anyone else's. And she knew Reno would take the same stance. She reached out slowly, smoothed her daughter's unruly red hair, the hair taken straight from her rebel father. The child stirred, looked as if she might wake. Then she settled again, sighing, perhaps caught up in a particularly wearisome dream. 

Jo almost jumped out of her skin when she felt someone mimic her actions, running their coarse fingers against her shoulder so gently that there was barely contact between them.

Turning, she saw Vincent's human hand withdraw. His expression was both surprised and slightly wounded, as if upset by her sudden reaction. She caught his hand, plucked it out of the air in which it lingered, wrapped her own around it. She offered Vincent a weary smile. He offered one back, a half-smile, a Vincent Valentine smile. No words. Just the warmth of truly human skin and the sincerity of truly human emotion. If he was a freak, he was the most wonderfully human freak she'd ever met in her life.

The midnight blue van crashed out of Sector Two, past the filthy inn, out of the gates and out of Midgar City. They were headed for Junon now, and nothing, no monster or gateway or mountain, would stand between them and their individual goals. Yuffie would not suffer. Korei would not die. AVALANCHE would not perish. Scarlett would be safe. Redemption would be theirs, and with it, the satisfaction of knowing that they had saved the ones they loved.

                                                    ***************** 

Ayden Neman watched the van depart, standing like a pale, dirty phantom illuminated by the moonlight pouring in from the newly opened gates. He barred the exit, an ineffectual roadblock watching the van as it got smaller and smaller, an ink-blue dot racing along crude dirt roads. He lingered a moment, looking out at the horizon, at the low mountains, at the sparkling ocean way in the distance. At the world beyond the squalid crypt of Midgar City. There were other places out there, other lives, other paths. He could have left Midgar if he wanted to, just like that van, but he didn't. Walking up to the gates, he pulled them shut again, blocking out the last of the pure moonlight with the two squares of rusted steel. Sector Two once again fell into darkness, lit only by the ailing yellow lights rising up out of the filthy ground like huge glowing obelisks. And then he walked back into Midgar, coughing and choking on the stagnant air, watching with almost insane contentment as two young children played an innocent game of jump rope with a dead cable. 

                                                            ****************

"Oblong"

"Carpet"

"Gurney"

"Moonshine"

"Celery"

"Oosherrence"

"Grolsch"

"Mistake"

Yuffie's eyes grew wide "You can't call your child Mistake!" she said incredulously, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Oh, but you can call your child Oblong or Gurney?" Tye's tone was calm and rational, as if they were discussing politics or evolution or some other intellectual subject. "I reserve the right to call my child Mistake if I so desire"

Yuffie shook her head again. "Fine, fine" she surrendered with a sigh "Carry on"

Tye mused for a moment, eyes almost rolling back in his skull as he thought. Then, with a grin, "Trauma"

Yuffie nodded, satisfied "Sleep"

"Disgrace"

"Salty"

"Stumpy"

"Dipshit"

This time, she did laugh "Dipshit Reynold?" she chuckled; elfin features creased into a genuine smile "You can't call your child Dipshit, Tye!"

"I can if I want to!" he replied childishly. "I can call my child anything. I could call them Obsequious Wilberforce Mushroomhead Reynold The Fourth, if I wanted to!"

"You could, in theory" Yuffie reasoned sagely "But it would be cruel"

"Yes" Tye agreed with a nod "So I'll stick with Oosherrence, I think"

Watching the pair from the chair by the window, Cid couldn't help but smile. It was rather ironic, actually, that they were discussing baby names, albeit slightly eccentric ones. Upstairs, lying in bed under the careful supervision of Tifa Lockheart was Tye's girlfriend (or, at least, he assumed it was his girlfriend) in the early stages of an unknown pregnancy. And what with? A human baby? Or a freakish equivalent? Maybe, then, the name 'Mistake' was rather apt. Although Cid's personal favourite thus far was most definitely 'Gurney' 

"Talking rubbish again?"

Cid turned, offered Elena a patented 'Cid' smile-a thin-lipped smirk, devoid of all humour and happiness. "Baby names" he explained gruffly "So far, we've got Gurney, Mistake, Salty, Trauma, Disgrace, Grolsch, Felonious…"

"I never said that!" Tye interrupted. "Neither did Yuffie!"

"Didn't you?" Cid thought for a moment. "Well, that's my input. Felonious."

Tye rolled his eyes. "You can't call your kid 'Felonious'" he sighed impatiently. "That's just ridiculous. Imagine how the other kids would tease him! You're so inconsiderate!"

Cid nodded a faux apology and waited until Tye and Yuffie had resumed their conversation before turning back to the amused blonde "You know, I'm guessing that the punk was dropped on his head at birth" he said, tone deadly serious, pale blue eyes scanning the pair for a second more before locking on Elena's round face.

"Rude says he needs you down in the hangar," Elena said. Dressed in oil-stained blue jeans and a loose-fitting, sleeveless hooded top (also streaked in thick black gunk) she still managed to look as casually beautiful as always. No wonder Rude like her! She managed to smear even more oil across her face as she reached up to brush away a few locks of honey-coloured hair. What the two Turks and Cloud were doing in the hangar was anyone's guess, but seeing as they had requested Cid's help, he guessed it must involve either the Highwind or the Tiny Bronco.   

The old pilot got up, creaking limbs complaining as he did so. He wasn't _that_ old, not when one put things in perspective, but nigh-on forty years of hard graft and physical exertion, not to mention countless broken bones and dislocations, had taken their toll on his lean body. The grey hairs streaking his ash blonde hair also bore witness to his premature ageing. Damned stress. He could always blame Shera.

"What you guys doing in there?" he asked, as Elena led him out towards the hulking metal hangar. They'd converted the old Shinra lift shaft, as well as dismantling most of the upper plate so the sun could shine once again upon the beaches of Lower Junon. 

The blonde knocked on the sheet metal door, eliciting a few hollow clangs before it rolled up and a dishevelled, oil-stained Rude greeted the two. Amazingly, his sunglasses were not only still perched on the end of his nose as usual, they were spotlessly clean. Unlike his shirt. The thick grey jumper was coated in crusted oil, his jeans even worse. Amusingly, his bald head was also streaked with black.

"Cid, I need to know how to get the engine started again," he gestured towards the bright pink plane settled in the middle of the spacious hangar. The Tiny Bronco had never looked more derelict, yet here they were, the three of them, trying to make it look vaguely respectable. Cloud, with a pot of baby pink paint obviously intended for Marlene's unfinished bedroom walls, was attempting to cover up the numerous rusty patches. His clothes were covered in baby pink splashes. Rude and Elena were obviously teaming up to tackle the problem of the defunct engine.

Cid eyed the sprawling engine with some doubt. "This baby ain't ever gonna fly again, you know" he reminded, kneeling down with a creak. He poked the engine with a hesitant finger.

"We don't need it to fly" Elena said "We want to use it as a boat. If the worst comes to the worst, we ship those who need protection out of here. Jo and her kid, Juventa, Yuffie, Marlene, Elmyra and someone to pilot it. But we need to fix the engine before we can do that" 

Cid reached into the overturned box of tools, pulled out a suitably sized monkey wrench. Working on a plane at nearly six o'clock in the morning. Now there was something he hadn't done since he was twenty-one. Part of him actually enjoyed the nostalgia of it all.

"Leave this part to me" he assured.

                                                ******************

"Gray, slow down!" Greenwood implored, watching fearfully as the sparse foliage dotting the roadside zipped past at an unreal speed. He pressed his body as far back into the seat as was humanly possible, shrinking into himself, the bonds pressing into his thin wrists.

"I don't want to" Gray's tone was calm, collected. She eyed the blurry road ahead with the same sense of control as someone trundling along the inner city roads at 20 miles per hour.

"But we'll crash!" Greenwood exclaimed fearfully, tensing every muscle in his body for the moment of impact he knew was coming.

"No we won't" Gray reasoned.

Rebekah attempted to yell out, but all that she could do was create a muffled yelp. The gag in her mouth prevented anything more. Frustrated, she kicked out, foot hitting the floor of the van hard. There was a hollow crash as thick, chunky boot hit the floor. 

"You can shut up, slut" there was enough cool malice in her tone to send Rebekah back into weepy silence.

Hidden from the vindictive insanity of her all-seeing pondweed eyes, hands bound tightly together by the thick chains, Manning shuffled a little closer, just close enough for his mouth to reach the side of the cotton gag. Careful not to bite his Rebekah, he set to work gnawing through the thin fabric, sharp incisors tearing at the cotton, making a series of little holes and tears which grew steadily wider and wider with each chomp. Finally, wet with spit and torn apart by aching teeth, the gag fell to the floor. Manning breathed in, then leaned over and kissed Rebekah gently, feeling the sticky blood smear itself across her face as he pressed his lips against hers. Awash with blissful relief, Rebekah returned the kiss. There was love in that kiss, love and compassion and optimism. The pretty brunette sucked in a delicious lungful of stale air, allowed Manning to kiss away the remaining tears, lips so gentle against her damp skin. He pulled back, allowing Rebekah a little more breathing space.

"I love you" he said, voice not much more than a breathy whisper "You do know that, don't you?"

Rebekah nodded, teary-eyed, red-cheeked.

"We're gonna be alright" he promised. "Look at me, 'Bekah"

She looked at him. Her soft hazel eyes locked onto Manning's ferociously beautiful black orbs, sparkling in the murkiness, lined with blood. His unruly brown hair, almost as long as her own lay over his ears, framing his handsome face. 

"We're gonna be alright" he repeated solemnly. 

Rebekah said nothing, just leaned over and pressed her dry lips against those of her lover. Their eyes closed. The gloom and dust and Gray's vile form were replaced by perfect darkness and the warmth of another's skin.

Korei, still sporting Manning's broken glasses, watched this scene with interest. It disgusted her and intrigued her at the same time. How could anyone possibly enjoy having someone shove their tongue in your mouth? Tongues were _disgusting_. Some of her older friends had done it, and said it was really nice. But how? She watched for a few moments more, until the brown haired lady and the nice looking man with the long hair drew apart, locking lips for another brief moment before returning to their side-by-side position. Maybe she'd have to ask Tye when they found him. Bad Tye! He had run away from her. Maybe he was scared of her. She was a little slow, sure, but even she knew that girls her age (or any age, for that matter) weren't supposed to have great big wings poking out of their backs. She hadn't really wanted them, but Gray had told her it was good, that it was a _'beautiful thing'_ and that people would always give her what she wanted once she had them. So she'd let Gray bring them out of her. It had hurt for a while, but not any more. Now they were just heavy. Anyway, she liked being able to fly, even if it did make her really tired. And being able to shoot huge blasts of Demi 3 at people was also kinda fun. 

Rebekah rested her head on Manning's shoulder. He kissed her hair gently, rested his head on hers, eyed Korei suspiciously. She smiled brightly. Either she was totally stupid, and unaware of the pain and hurt she and her master were causing, or she was totally unhinged and didn't care. It didn't matter; there was no forgiveness as far as either Manning or Rebekah were concerned. And he knew that Greenwood, who was still engaged in the time-consuming act of cowering in the front seat, had the same opinion.

                                                            ***********

Travelling at a steady 60mph, Shinoda's own van zipped across the moonlit fields.

All was deathly silent in the smaller van. Until a sudden exclamation from Reno broke it.

"Shit! Is that her!?"

He jabbed a thin finger in the direction of a speeding black hulk, travelling just ahead of them on the dirt track parallel to theirs. Like Shinoda had promised, they had caught up. Gray had taken the long way round, and thanks to her mistake they were now making up for lost time.

Shinoda nodded, pushing his foot against the accelerator. The van's speed shot up to 75mph. The engine suddenly roared in complaint, the van jerking forward with the abrupt change of speed. 

The dark man's plan was simple: knock Gray off the road, or at least stall her. One way or another, they'd be able to get to Junon before her, prepare themselves, get Juventa and her unborn child to safety before Gray could find out where they were taking her. Then, rescue Korei and put an end to Gray and all her sick ideas. 

Still silent and expressionless, Shinoda turned onto the inside 'lane'; another, thinner dirt track directly adjacent to the one Gray's van was racing along. When they got to the corner that skimmed the Mythril River, they would be more or less level with Gray, and maybe then they could dislodge her from the road. The Midgan mountains in the distance lost all sense of identity, becoming one dark, high-reaching blur as they sped by. It seemed that even the moon was having trouble keeping up. In the back, Vincent's grip on Jo's hand got that little bit tighter. 

The great man's dark eyes narrowed, brow furrowing with deep concentration. Clutching the wheel for dear life, he turned sharply, cutting as much of the corner as possible. And sure enough, the huge black van was within reach. All that was needed was a final burst of speed, and they would have her.

"Please be careful, Shinoda" Jo called fearfully. A quick glance in the mirror showed a panicked young woman, one hand gripping the shoulder of her blissfully unaware daughter, the other enfolded in the hand of the stoic gunslinger. Shinoda might have offered some sort of comfort on any other occasion.  But not this one. Pushing his foot down as hard as he could, he brought forth the final burst they needed; the burst that would either send them speeding forward, knocking Gray's van off the road, or that would stall the engine, sending them skidding to a grinding halt, useless and stranded at the side of the road. There was a moment of tenseness as he awaited the engine's final verdict.

It opted for the former rather than the latter. The smaller van jerked forward once more, wrenching its occupants violently from their seats. With the exception of Vincent, all were shoved just as roughly back into their seats by their seatbelts. Somehow, the dark gunman managed to cling on, remaining steadfast in his seat. His expression remained blank; somehow he was completely unfazed by the whole situation.

The smaller van shunted Gray's behemoth with a loud crash, the bonnet hitting the back doors with considerable force. There was a loud snap as on of the headlights flickered and died, plunging the road ahead into partial obscurity. For a moment, the two vans became one, joined together by twisted metal and mangled bull bars. Then, as Shinoda released the pressure on the accelerator, they broke apart. Gray's van skidded a little, swerved ever so slightly to the side.

"Again! Now!" Reno yelled throatily, almost leaping out of his seat in his excitement. Shinoda reacted quickly, shoving his foot down again, even harder than the first time. His mouth was set, a grim line of concentration. This had to be it. They couldn't fail now. With a deafening roar of mechanical agony, the midnight blue van once again rammed the black one, hitting it at an angle.

It worked. With a loud squeal of tyres and a choking puff of dry dirt, Gray's van spun forty degrees, barring the road as it came to a halt. Shinoda swerved sharply, just missing the end of the van as it overtook, thundering off the dirt track, onto the uneven grassland for a moment, kicking up clods of thick mud before swerving back on and continuing its rapid journey.

Reno slumped back in his seat, allowing himself to breathe once more. Shinoda released his iron grip on the wheel a little, just enough so that a little colour could bleed back into his ghostly white knuckles. In the back, Jo breathed a sigh of relief, pressing a kiss to Scarlett's head. How the child had slept through all the commotion was beyond her. Beside her, Vincent sat, cold hand still entwined with hers, expression still frighteningly blank, form still rigid and stoic. Jo squeezed his hand, expecting a response. There was none. She frowned, examining his features for a sign of fear, or sickness, or any other negative emotion that might explain his stillness. There was nothing, no emotion at all.

Then it struck her; the only other explanation. They were faced with danger, a danger not even Vincent Valentine could fight. Which could mean only one thing:

Chaos was trying to take him over.

                                                ******************

Unfazed, Gray turned the wheel. She righted the van, turned back onto the road, watched for a moment as the dark blue vehicle sped off into the distance. Allow them a little more time, a little head start. It was more fun that way. As long as her Goddess was unhurt and her hostages were alive, she knew she could make up this little loss.

Shooting the terrified Greenwood a sweet, beautiful smile, she pressed her foot down. The game was on. She would be the winner, no matter what.      

_A/N: Oh my god! Yay me for churning out another chapter so quickly! Yeah, it's rather crap, but hey, it's here! Thanks to Zinic, Shadow-Edge, Dual Keyblade Master (thanks for putting me on your favourites list ^_^), Jamal (Miss Fyrefly, but it's far easier to just call me Tio) Crystal, Heather Cat, Scarr C, Chuu, wHIte-cHOcoLaTE, Ari (I'll keep delaying the Tyfie as long as you deny me my Baidaness! Just kidding! ^_^) Magnum Opus, Carter-Chan, Dragon Lady, Morning z e p h y r and Darkangel666 for all your reviews! And I know for a fact that I've forgotten someone, so I'm truly sorry if you're that person (or people, if I'm really that scatty) and I will most definitely give you shout-out next time round! Next chapter will feature the arrival of both Gray and Shinoda in Junon. Reffieness, Josentine, two deaths, a little Cait Sith for good measure. And…I will reveal nothing more! _

_Thanks so much for reading!_

_TIO (The Voodoo Fyrefly)_

TioRankP@hotmail.com

Roll on Chapter 35!


	35. Chapter 35: Explosions In The Sky

**_Chapter 35-Explosions In The Sky_**

_'I know it's hard to believe, and no, before you ask, nothing has fallen on my head in the past twenty-four hours. Neither am I under the influence of mind-expanding drugs'_

_Reno Lozano_

**__**

_'The sea's evaporating_

_Though it comes as no surprise_

_These clouds we're seeing_

_They're explosions in the sky_

_It seems it's written_

But we can't read between the lines 

_Hush, it's ok_

_Dry your eye_

_Soulmate, dry your eye_

_'Cause soulmates never die'_

_"Sleeping With Ghosts"_

_Placebo_

"There" 

Cid stepped back, watched as the Tiny Bronco slipped into the water like a huge pink whale that had been beached and rescued. Rude, still with thick black gunk smeared across his face and head like primitive war paint, watched it slide effortlessly into the brine. Standing close beside him was Elena, shielding her eyes from the glare of the hazard lights that still hung from the skeletal wreck of the huge towering support pillar. Cloud leaned out from the cockpit, tanned skin and blonde hair flecked with blotches of baby pink. "Looks like she's working fine!" he called, flipping Cid the 'thumbs up' signal. 

With a grin, Cid returned the gesture, automatically lit up a cigarette. "Guess it's just a matter of waitin'" he said between draws, blowing a plume of bitter smoke into the briny air.

"I hope the guys are okay," he mumbled.

Elena raised her eyebrows "Never knew you cared, Highwind"

Cid shook his head "Thing is, Vince may be a spoony vampire, and Reno may be a pain in the arse, but for some screwed reason my whole opinion has changed on both of them. Maybe 'cause I know now that neither of them are as cold and heartless as they make out. I dunno."

The blonde girl snorted "Spoony vampire?"

"Hey, what else could I call him?" Cid reasoned, watching as Cloud propelled the Bronco out into the deeper waters, then back into the shallows again. "He's a weird one, Vince. Just when you think he can't surprise you anymore…he goes and falls for some random girl"

This time, both Elena and Rude raised their eyebrows in surprise "You think he likes Jo?" she asked incredulously "No way!"

Cid nodded sagely "Vince is a tough nut to crack, but he's not impossible. He doesn't give that girl the same cool treatment as he does us. I think maybe he's finally left the whole Lucrecia thing behind"

Rude shrugged "Maybe" he said, audibly unconvinced. "But…I dunno, man. That Lucrecia thing hit him hard. A lot harder than we could ever imagine"

Cid cocked his head to the side "Sounds like you know more than me" he remarked, tugging at the elastic of his pilot goggles (procured from his stash of goggles after Cloud's shameful 'goggle mutilation') Below the line of elastic, Elena could just make out a thick red pressure band where the strap had dug into Cid's pale skin. She would have winced inwardly if the effect hadn't been quite so amusing.

Rude shook his head "The guy's complex, but he's not impossible, like you said. Back in the day, when Tseng was just a rookie like us, we were headed by a guy named Delmont Heidegger..." he stopped, savouring the name for a moment "…Delmont Heidegger, elder brother of the fat, cackling idiot you killed two years ago. Anyway, Vincent Valentine was at the top of his game back then. A Reno of his time, minus the booze and sex. I was the youngest…barely sixteen and already a Turk. My father was a Turk before me. I was privileged. Best martial arts training money could buy. You'd never guess…that I was the product of the slums…of a totally broken home…"

The stoic man trailed off for a moment, staring coldly into the rolling waves. Dark, inky blue waves, illuminated in equal parts by the cold moon and the weak, dying lights hanging from the tower. He watched for a moment as Cloud circled the dead tower, brought the Tiny Bronco back to shore. Both Cid and Elena watched him for that moment, neither daring to prompt him out of sheer respect. Then he continued.

"So we were the Turks. A frightened kid to whom Shinra were acting the babysitter so his crack head mother and alcoholic father could kill each other in peace. A quiet, deep individual imported fresh from Wutai after the war, speaking incredibly basic English. A hardened killing machine, admirable in every way yet doomed to be succeeded by his moronic kid brother. And Vincent. He was born in Cosmo, but his pallor would have you believe otherwise. Such a deep man. He and Tseng had this odd connection…you know, through the barriers of language and culture. Two fiercely intelligent men. Two men filled with potential. Then Shinra hired Lucrecia"

Another pause. Rude kicked a solitary pebble, sending it rolling down the shore with a series of hollow clicks. 

"Lucrecia Kinsella. Absolutely beautiful girl, no doubt about it. Only just hit her twenties…same age as Vincent around that time. They hired her as an assistant to the professors Gast and Hojo. And she and Vincent really hit it off. Imagine, if you can, your typical fresh-faced 20-something, full of exuberance and life. That was Vincent. None of that 'atonement' stuff, no, he was like Tye, only with far more brains. And yes, he was deep, but he was still young and knew it. The pair of them were really close, best friends. You could tell that Vincent was falling for her. But she seemed taken by another guy.

Hojo was always around, you know, another young upstart plucked straight from Midgar. And back then he was rather normal too. I don't quite know what Lucrecia saw in this man, but there was something in him that set him apart from Vincent. So, she spent less and less time with Vincent, more and more time locked in the Shinra mansion with Hojo. But by this time, Vincent was totally gone. Totally in love. It was a waste, you know. A waste of a man. Vincent tried everything to woo Lucrecia…he even proposed marriage to her, but it was all in vain. And we all sat back and called him stupid and foolish and every name in the book while we watched him chase the girl around. But there was more to it"

"Shall I take her for another spin?" Cloud yelled eagerly from the cockpit, interrupting Rude's flow. He looked up, startled.

"If you want" Cid yelled back "Goddamn, man! Interrupting a good story!"

Cloud shrugged, lowered the window, reversed the chugging Bronco back out into the shallows.

"So, what happened?" Cid asked.

Rude shook his head for what must have been the fifteenth time "Girl screwed him over, for want of a better expression. Told Vincent she loved him, told him she wanted to be with him. Even spoke about having a child together. All this was before Hojo came along, and that's why Vincent was so in love. Because they had a whole future worked out. But then Hojo arrived, and…you know the rest of the story. It hit Vincent a lot harder than you could tell from his mumbled monologues. And I still think there's part of him that longs for that child, that family. Think about it: if Lucrecia had been true to her word…if Sephiroth had never been born…how much would be different right now? We wouldn't be standing here together, I assure you of that. You, Cid, would probably still be in Rocket Town, gathering dust. I would still be a Turk, working my guts out for people that didn't care. I don't doubt Reno would be shooting heroin out of boredom. Elly would still be a secretary. Cloud wouldn't be the screwball he is today"

"And we wouldn't be fixing up a dying airplane in preparation to fight a homicidal maniac" Cid finished, eyeing the Bronco as it circled merrily. "You know, part of me is disappointed that Lucrecia and Vincent didn't end up together. We wouldn't have all this shit to contend with. But then again…neither would we have half the things we have now"

"Like what?"

"Like money. Like glory. Like love" Cid fixed Rude with a stern gaze "And I know I sound like I'm preachin' here, but don't you think it's ironic how everyone has found their soul mate thanks to Sephiroth? Cloud's found Tifa. Barret's found Marlene…"

"You've found Shera" Elena added.

Cid nodded. "Exactly. And what about all this new stuff going on? As much as Tye pisses me off sometimes, he's practically family as far as I'm concerned. And I'm prayin' to every god in the sky that their kid turns out fine. Juvi's a pretty girl and she'll be a fine mother. Vincent and Jo…if anything happens between them, I don't doubt it'll last a long time. I can tell just by looking. You two…well…" Cid scratched his head and grinned a little "I saw that coming a mile off, to tell you the truth"

Elena flushed and looked at her feet with an embarrassed smile. Rude reached out, squeezed her hand. 

"And even that Ninja brat seems to be tugging on Reno's heartstrings. And if that means we're gonna see those two firecrackers calm down a bit, then I'm all for it" 

"Can you imagine…a calm Yuffie…" 

Rude and Elena shook their heads in unison and watched as Cloud brought the Bronco back in to shore.

                                                          *************************

Two vans, worlds apart in terms of size and shine, zipped down the winding roads linking Junon and Midgar. From a bird's perspective, there wasn't much in the race…from Gray's perspective, the back lights of the dark blue vehicle were a mere blur in the distance.

The fear in the air was all too palpable; Gray chose to ignore it, instead concentrating on trying to make her passengers as uneasy as possible. She accomplished this in two ways; lurching across the road every now and then at such an angle that it seemed the van might tip over. She would also occasionally break out in fits of cackling laughter for what seemed like no reason at all. She relished the sound of Greenwood's whimper…the muffled cries of "Fucking hell!" emanating from Manning's direction…the gasps and tearful exclamations of the deliciously terrified Rebekah. It kept the adrenaline pumping and her spirits high. And she knew that Korei felt the same…albeit in a naïve way. 

Ah, her Goddess. What a shock for Cloud and his friends! She had powers beyond their comprehension; their most powerful summons would be rendered incapable by Korei's very own summon. And if Lameious was too difficult for them, as they had so amusingly proved in the Northern Cave…then how would they fare against Neo-Lameious? It was all too much for Gray; she threw back her head and let out a whooping cry of elation. 

In the back, Korei eyed her master with surprise. She held Manning's glasses to her face with one hand while tapping the floor with the other. For some reason, Ms Gray was happy. Of course, this had to be a good thing; it was rarely a bad thing for her master to be happy, because when she was in such a mood she would often treat Korei. But why all of a sudden? 

She side-eyed Manning. He looked to be asleep. His dark eyes were shut, head resting against the wall of the van. Leaning on his shoulder, a semi-awake Rebekah fixed her crescent eyes on Korei. She didn't really seem to be paying much attention to the Goddess, looking through her rather than at her. And if Korei had not been quiet as naive, she might have realised this. But instead, she chose to feel a sudden sense of self-importance.

_'They're all scared of me'_ she told herself proudly, eyeing the cowering Greenwood, eyeing Gray, eyeing Manning and Rebekah. _'I am a Goddess. I can kill anyone if I want to. I could even kill my Dad…maybe'_

A sudden whine from Greenwood, and a crack of fist against face caught Korei's attention.

"Shut up, fuckhead" Gray snarled, retracting her fist and replacing it on the wheel. Korei could make out a trickle of blood escaping Greenwood's nostril. Looks like Gray had hurt him. Served him right for crying like a baby, really. Even she wasn't crying, and she was so much younger. Pathetic.

Gray pushed her foot down on the accelerator. Half an hour to Junon, at this speed. And even if they got there in second place…who really cared? A little time advantage meant nothing to her.

Half an hour to Junon.

Loki Gray smiled.

                                                            *********************

"Tye"

Tye looked up at Elmyra with the faux innocent expression of a child who has just been caught right in the middle of picking their nose. "Yes?" he blinked.

"Please close the fridge now. The butter will melt"

Tye complied obediently. The fridge closed. He stood up.

"What were you doing anyway…" Elmyra scooped up the teabag, squeezed it against the side of the mug, threw it in the bin at her feet "…staring into the fridge for so long?"

"There is a rotting doughnut in there" Tye answered.

Elmyra cocked her head to the side "It's still there?" she didn't seem overly shocked by this, lifting the mug to her lips and taking a few delicate sips "I did ask Barret to throw it away…"

"No, don't do that!" Tye exclaimed suddenly, causing Elmyra to jump a little, almost spilling her tea. She eyed the indignant youngster curiously for a moment.

"I've taught it to talk" he explained, tone sagacious, deadly serious. Elmyra fought back a laugh. 

"Have you now?"

"Yes" was Tye's serious answer. "It can say its name"

"What's its name?" Elmyra couldn't believe that she was actually conversing with this lunatic. It was like talking to Marlene…except Marlene was far more intelligent, and never professed to have taught a mouldy doughnut to talk.

"Russell"

That was it. Elmyra, a woman usually so jaded and tired that she didn't have the time to laugh burst into merry laughter, spitting out her tea in the process. Tye grinned as he watched the weary face of Elmyra Wallace contort in laughter. 

"My work here is done," he murmured. Straightening up and flicking his newly-gelled Mohican for effect, he prodded Elmyra as he walked by, calling out "Yufffiiiiiieeeee! Where ya gone?!?"

                                                            *********************

Reno leaned his head against the window, one eye fixed on the wing mirror, the other on the steadily expanding silhouette of the broken Sister Ray that lay ahead. Junon was within their reach now, and provided the black van that flanked them at a steady pace didn't play them at their own game by attempting to shunt them off-road, they would make it within half an hour. Maybe sooner. 

He sighed. Beside him, Shinoda sat hunched over at the wheel. His great hands clutched the thin black steering wheel, looking like they might snap the structure at any minute. His eyes were fixed on the winding road ahead, at the sections of the dirt road illuminated by the glare of the headlights. Thick night was beginning to give way to the lavender haze of morning. In the east, beyond the distant horizon, the sky was beginning to take on a reddish tint, staining the dusky blue with bloody streaks. The very stars were beginning to take refuge in the upper reaches of the sky, hiding themselves until the sun once again disappeared and they could gavotte through the heavens in peace. 

Behind him, Jo had fallen asleep with her arms tightly around Scarlett. Vincent, as silent and stony as always, stared impassively out the window at the passing mountains. There was no discernable expression on his face, no emotion in his eyes. The only giveaway to his thoughts and feelings was a single finger, wrapped around that of the sleeping Jo. 

_'So…my ex-girlfriend, mother of my kid and all round whore has fallen for Mr Sin'_ Reno allowed this thought to travel round his head for a few minutes before allowing himself to continue _'And Valentine, a man so full of self-hate that he locked himself in a coffin for a good five years, has fallen for her'_

He turned away, fixed his stare on the wing mirror again.

'And I don't even care' 

It didn't bother him, not at all. Why should it? Jo wasn't 'his girl' anymore, and at least Valentine (as weird as he was) was a decent enough man. Pure of intention. And then, Yuffie…

It suddenly struck Reno; half an hour from Junon meant half an hour from Yuffie. Half an hour from her elfin grin, stormy eyes and maybe, just maybe, her sweet kiss. Who could tell? Maybe, by some miracle, the ninja would reciprocate the feelings Reno suddenly found himself in possession of.

"Shinoda…" Reno turned, faced the dark man. "I don't suppose…we could go any faster?"

Shinoda nodded. "I can take her up to sixty" he replied in a low voice. "Why? Is she gaining on us?"

Reno shook his head "No, nothing like that"

"Then what?" Shinoda asked, "I'm not going to waste good fuel unless there's a reason" 

Reno sighed again. "I want to see…I wanna see the girl I love again"

This got Vincent's attention. Slowly, the gunman lifted his head. Reno could see his ruby eyes glimmering bloodily in the wing mirror, shining bright in the gloom.

"Yuffie…?" he quizzed.

Reno nodded "I know it's hard to believe, and no, before you ask, nothing has fallen on my head in the past twenty-four hours. Neither am I under the influence of mind-expanding drugs" he took a breath. Why did he feel like he had to explain himself? Vincent was allowed to fall for Jo without questioning…why did he have to justify his feelings? "Look, Vincent…I need to see her…you don't understand…"

Vincent merely nodded. "I do understand," he countered, turning his cold gaze back to the mountains that formed the spine of the Midgan continent. "This may be the last time you get to see her before Gray kills us all, and you want to tell her everything. Yes, I understand Reno"

_'Shit, dude, can you read minds?' _Reno blinked long and slow, aqueous eyes hidden for a moment behind hoods of flesh. "Then you understand why I need to see her as soon as possible. Please…Shinoda…I don't ask for things too often…too much pride…but if you could do this one thing for me…I'll be…" he stopped, swallowed hard "I'll be forever in your debt. Seriously"

Shinoda didn't reply. He pressed his foot down. With a splutter of complaint, the van lurched forward. The engine hummed in irritation. Sixty miles per hour. That meant they'd make Junon in about twenty, perhaps fifteen minutes. They had allocated two hours, yet only an hour of that time had been used. _'Thank the gods for speed'_ Reno thought, settling back in his seat.

                                                   ******************

"Tifa?"

"Yes Juvi?"

Juventa Darkhart, propped up in bed by three thick pillows, eyed Tifa with a dark curiosity. "Why won't you let me see Tye?"

Tifa opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. The answer was obvious; Tye would see her, think of what he'd inadvertently done and break down. And then Juvi would want answers, and those answers would do nothing for her illness. But…at the same time…it was her body…and her child…

_'Sweet Shiva, give me the strength to tell. And give her the strength to take it'_ Tifa settled herself on the edge of the bed. Juvi, haggard and tired yet still exuding a natural prettiness looked at her, knowing within herself that something was not right. 

"Juvi…you know that while you were sleeping, Gray and her people, uh, experimented on you…" the brunette trailed off, trying to think of the best wording. "And, well, they decided to experiment on Tye too. And, well, one of these experiments…was a copy of the Jenova project. It involved the conception of a child…"

"…They made me pregnant, didn't they?" Juvi interrupted coldly.

Tifa closed her mouth and nodded dumbly.

Juvi closed her eyes. Long lashes spread out against pale, dirty cheeks. "Is Tye the father?"

"Yes"

"Are you sure?"

"One hundred percent"

Juvi exhaled. "There's a blessing, I guess…" she murmured. Her eyes remained tightly closed as she cupped her hands against her mouth. She drew in a breath, exhaled. Drew in another, this time far more ragged. Her dark eyebrows knotted, a quicksilver tear escaped her closed eyes. 

Tifa felt her own eyes fill with tears, and she extended both arms, caught Juvi in an embrace just as the young, scared, ailing girl burst into tears. 

_'I'm so sorry it had to be this way'_ she thought, murmuring words of comfort into Juvi's dark, glossy mane. _'But Tye is a good man. He'll care for you, and he'll care for the child, whether it be human or otherwise. He is a good man'_

Tifa sat. And waited.

                                                            ******************

"So, we've got the Bronco as an escape route for those who need it. Most of the guys are fully equipped, and thanks to Yuffie's neat little materia-stealing routine back at the compound, we've got enough high-level magic to last us. We're all running on full strength, except maybe Yuffie but she's a long range fighter anyway. We're gonna have Yuffie, Vince, Barret and Elena on the back row. Cloud, Red, Rude, Reno, Tifa and myself will make up the front row. We're gonna give Tye the God's Hand and see how he does. We're giving him an Escort Guard and a little materia too. Elmyra, Shera and Reeve are taking care of Marlene and Juvi. When Vince and Reno get here, they'll join us. Maybe we can persuade that Shinoda guy to fight…he seems like a brutal motherfucker. Is there anything…anything at all we've forgotten?" 

"Yes" Rude nodded, extending a finger in the direction of the small black cat sitting on the sofa, juggling cheerily with what appeared to be three glowing _'Fire'_ Materias.

"Shit" Cid sighed, placing his forefinger and thumb either side of his nose. "What do we do with the cat?"

Cait Sith looked up, stopped juggling the materia. "Hey, I have my uses!" he protested shrilly.

"Not without your marshmallow friend you don't" Cid countered. Cait Sith looked down again, visibly saddened. "Stupid animal. What good is a midget cat on the battlefield? Whatcha gonna do? Purr round their ankles and nip their fingers?"

"That's quite enough, Cid" Shera warned sharply.

The pilot eyed her sternly for a moment before sighing again and reverting to his 'stressed Cid' pose…head down, fingers pressed against bridge of nose, eyes squeezed shut.

Shera shook her head. "Cait Sith, you can help look after Marlene if you like" Shera offered helpfully, scratching his ears a little. Cait nodded but said nothing.

_'I'm just as good as all of you'_ Cait sulked, righting his crown. _'You just watch me. 'I'll prove you wrong, Highwind'_

A/N: _Special thanks to Zinic, whose absolutely insane review had me in fits while writing this chapter and gave me the inspiration for the Tye/Doughnut scene(another outlet for my current obsession with the name 'Russell') all credit for that doughnut skit to Zinic! And don't worry…we'll see Gray VERY mad soon…mwahaha! That's not to say that all my other reviewers are any less appreciated! All of you motivated me to get this one rolling._

The deaths have been postponed till next chapter (mwaha!) in which we will see the joyous return of Reffieness. So get your 'Reffie' flags out! Also…I'm thinking of giving Manning a slightly bigger role. Nothing too fancy, but I've taken a real shine to him! I really enjoy writing about him…so…watch this space for a potential Manning-related twist!

_Two chapters to go. Maybe just the one if I can fit everything in._

_Excited yet…? No…? I'm trying!_

_More pie-related adventures next chapter!_

_~TIO (The Voodoo Fyrefly)_

_Thanks for reading! – TioRankP@hotmail.com_


	36. Chapter 36: The Final Hour Part One

**_Chapter 37-The Final Hour (Part One)_**

_'__Gray, listen up and listen good; we ain't giving Juventa up without a fight. We ain't giving shit up without a fight. So you best get your ass outta here…or you step the hell up. Got that?'_

Cid Highwind

_'In a darkened place  
Man without a face  
Count on fingers the choices he could've made  
Paint a picture of the view from up above_

_You-and soon he's painting in blood_

_And that man is me_

_La vida perdi (I lost my life)  
Now I'm casting a shadow in front of me  
Now I've drained my heart so I no longer bleed_

_Clip my wings and hope to fly_

_Wave my last goodbye_

_Will I be awake?   
Hold my hand when I die   
Won't you try?   
Won't you take my place?_

_Burn your name in the sky…'_

_"La Ultima Hora"_

_Breed 77_

_'No-one can stand back down…_

_No more'_

_"Smoke and Mirrors"_

_Fallen To_

In the front of the van, Gray lazily steered with one hand, using the other to tap the dashboard in sync with some crazy mental rhythm.

"Let me tell you a little something, Adam" she said conversationally.

Adam Greenwood's mouth trembled. The right side of his round, rubber-ball face was swollen and useless, puffy and bruised from Gray's repeated lashes and the constant _bump, smash_ of the dashboard against his cheek each time the van jerked forward. His right eye and the corner of his right mouth were grotesquely inflamed, swollen closed from Gray's earlier attack, and now he was beginning to resemble a stroke victim in his forced paralysis. 

"You, 'Bekah and Manning are to me what the Bandersnatches are to the hunters of the Great Glacier. Do you know what I mean by that, Ad?" she waited only a few fleeting seconds before continuing, not acknowledging Greenwood's mute headshake, not even caring. "Every year in the Great Glacier, the Guard gather for the annual Jumping Hunt. In the Glacier, you see, they rely almost totally on home-grown crops and the meat of the Jumping Rabbit to survive. There's precious little else to eat. And every autumn, the Guard take up their Chocobos, bring out their wolves…in the Glacier, they're known as Bandersnatches…and hunt the Jumping down. This serves two main purposes, the first being the 'meat harvest'…in a good Hunt, up to two hundred Jumping can be killed, their meat salted and preserved to last throughout winter. The second being to prevent them from eating all the crops. They're ready for harvest too, you know, at that time of year, and don't those Jumping know it!" She savoured this for a moment. There was a short, taut silence. Then Gray's raspy sandpaper tones rattled through the van once more. 

"And though you're not out there killing, Adam, you're preventing those pesky Jumping from eating all my crops. Destroying everything I helped sow. Because while you are all with me, I know they won't dare attack this van. They don't want to be responsible for civilian deaths now, do they? Fuck no!" she slammed the steering wheel for emphasis, sending the van on a sharp skid for a moment before her dextrous hands once again brought the black beast under control. Greenwood grabbed hold of the seat to keep from flying forward. Beads of dark, sticky blood were drying on his upper lip. He found himself idly wishing his hands were unbound so he could wipe them off.

"But after the hunt, those 'Snatches are all shot. What use are they to the Guard? By the time the next Hunt comes round, they'll be too old to participate. They've outlived their usefulness. So they are rounded up and shot. Some call this cruel…some call it necessary. I am one of the latter. You are my hunt wolves, Adam, and after this is over, you too will be disposed of. After all…what use would you be to me? Nothing but a nuisance. Nothing but surplus"

"So we're expendable, is that it?" Manning asked from the back, leaning his tired head against the constantly trembling wall, feeling his teeth rattling in his skull. "Once you've used us, you'll throw us away? You don't really give a fuck about what happens to us, do you?"

"Watch how you talk to me, Manning" Gray warned calmly, blank gaze fixed on the winding dirt road ahead. 

"Fuck you" he spat back, turning his head toward the back door and closing his eyes. "You're crazy"

"Not crazy" Gray said sweetly, flipping on the indicator for no reason. "Just in control. All I want is for this to end without bloodshed. All I want is to…_resolve_ things"

"No you fucking _don't_" Manning spat again, this time venomous. Gray actually jumped at the spite in his voice _'Charlie Manning has a backbone! Hallelujah!' _"All you want is to get Juventa back so you can incubate that freak baby. You don't give a shit how many people you have to kill"

"Oh!" she exclaimed suddenly, voice positively chirpy. "I almost forgot! Well done, Manning!"

"Any time" he said sullenly, sinking back into himself. His newly fortified backbone slowly began to dissolve, slowly...until Gray made her next _faux pas_. 

"But don't you worry, Adam. You won't be the first to go. You've been a pretty loyal worker, up until you decided to bail out" she shook her head, her expression that of a disappointed parent. "So I may spare you a little longer. No, I think Rebekah will be the first one. She's a useless little slut, isn't she Addie?" her voice lifted on the last sentence, suddenly becoming frighteningly chipper. A brief smile into the rear-view mirror. A shark smile, directed at Rebekah…she knew the frightened, trembling girl could see it. "Who knows, maybe some good will come of---"

"Oh, will you fucking shut UP!" Manning finally exploded, ending his sentence on a yell. He rammed his bound fists into the wall of the van, meeting the sheet metal shell with a clash of chains. In the seat next to her, Adam Greenwood let out a small chuckle. Gray shot him a malignant stare. She was unnerved to note that he didn't shrink away, didn't cough nervously. Fucking hell, _two_ new backbones. A little nagging voice in the back of her head…the voice of 'the pessimist'…told her that this wasn't good, that this marked a change in fortune, but she shooed it away.

"Manning, sweetie…"

"I don't know what's wrong with your head, Gray, but I hope you're not too fucked to understand what I'm going to say: Brody Wells killed Shawn McLeary. Brody Wells has somehow risen from the dead and it was her that made Shawn blow like a fucking blister. I know it sounds screwed, but we saw it with our own eyes, heard it with our own ears, Adam and me. I have the tapes back in my room. If you don't believe me, I can show you. But she's not going to stop. She's going to come for you, and for every bitch that wronged her"

"Manning, you're delirious" she said sadly, the infuriating _click-click, click-click_ of the indicator punctuating her words. "Lay down, catch some sleep. You're worrying way too much…"

"For fuck's sake, Gray!" Manning screamed, voice breaking painfully at the last syllable. His dark eyes were fierce and angry and, sitting opposite him, Korei was almost afraid for a second. Almost. "I saw it! I fucking _heard_ her! She's after you! You've got to stop this because you're giving her all the reason she needs to kill you like she killed Shawn!"

She tutted, shook her head, said nothing more.

Manning opened his mouth, closed it in defeat, uttered an exasperated sigh, lightly head butting the interior wall in frustration. 

"He's telling the truth!" Greenwood bellowed. For the first time he sat bolt upright, bruised face contorted into a gruesome, bloodied mask of anger and hatred. Rabid spittle sprayed out of his mouth "I was there! I fucking saw it! He is telling the _fucking truth_!"

Moving with incredible speed, Gray rammed a fist straight into Greenwood's face. Harder than any time before. It connected with his nose, sending a thin jet of dark blood spitting across the windscreen in coin-sized spots. Greenwood let out a shrill scream as Gray retracted her fist, placed it back on the steering wheel. There were smears of liquid red across her closed fist, dribbling slowly down her wrist and soaking into the dirty greying fabric of her jacket. 

"Now fucking shut up," she muttered, bloody fingers tightening their grip on the wheel. She turned the van, turned it round and came to a sudden, unexpected stop.

They had reached a human roadblock.

Gray grinned and switched off the ignition.

                                                ******************************

They stood in a row; all lined up like a scowling identity parade. Before them stood a battered black van, chugging yet unmoving, facing them like a silent, still foe. Neither made the move to attack. They stood, face-to-face, nose-to-nose, so tense that the slightest touch would render every muscle shattered. Waiting for the blue van.

Somewhere along the line, Gray had overtaken, sick of playing second, sick of seeing the closed back doors of the smaller van laughing in her face every time they took a turn. And so the other van trailed back, defeated in the knowledge of Korei's tremendous power and the devastation Gray could so easily unleash; with a click of her fingers, the town would be up in flames. With the clap of her hands…who knew what havoc she could wreak?

It was Gray who made the first move. With the van immobile, she slipped out of the driver seat, a slender blonde sprite with the darkest intentions. She made her steady way round to the front of the van, resting casually against the cool bonnet. A sickeningly sweet smile crossed her face, below the shambolic mess of her nose, below the dark green slits of her narrowed eyes. 

"This could be so much easier, you know" she began, flicking back a lock of honey blonde hair. "If you just swallow your pride and hand over Juventa. That's all I want" another smile, this time far more false than the first, a deathly shark smile procured straight from her days with Shinoda. "I'm not a nasty person, you know. I just need Juventa. Then I will never bother you again…you have my word"

"You don't seem to get it, do you Loki?" Tifa replied coolly, taking one step forward. Her mahogany eyes burned into Gray's with uncharacteristic ferocity and something close to hatred. Something that did not belong to Tifa Lockheart. "We're not handing her over. Not now, not ever. You want her, you prise her from my cold, dead hands" she held out both hands. The serrated blades of the Premium Heart glimmered lethally in the early glow of dawn, sealed into the tough red leather of her standard gloves. Her hands were completely still. No nerves. Her eyes remained fixed on Gray's, unwavering, ferocious, verging on the deadly. 

Gray smirked, shook her head "Always full of empty threats. Lockheart, you haven't changed a bit" Peering into the van, she offered Greenwood an empty smile. "Don't throw around comments and promises like those until you have the trousers to go with the mouth, little girl"

Tifa opened her mouth, ready to unleash several thousand acid retorts all at once, but she bit her tongue. After all…that would just stoke Gray's flame, she would feed off it like the foul little parasite she was. 

"I'm more a woman than you could ever dream to be" she replied tartly.

Gray spun round on her heels, fixing Tifa with an icy glare "Why's that?" she quizzed, tone acid yet hurt at the same time "Because you've got tits bigger than Midgar? Because you could independently fuck every guy in the Shinra ranks just for fun?" she shook her head, laughing bitterly "Yeah, I'm fucking ugly. And I think that's why you always ended up one step ahead of me. You just had to flash them a smile and a bit of thigh and you were well on your way to SOLDIER. And then me…" she shook her head again, fingers lithely tracing the twisted outline of her nose, the hollow sockets of her cheeks, the swollen lids of her eyes. "I didn't mind being the ugly one, you know, because even though those dickheads couldn't look past your fucking beautiful shell, I knew I had the substance to make it. I just didn't want to give head to every exec I came across. Unlike you, Tiffie" her tone suddenly went from bitter and introspective to chummy and knowing. Her pondweed eyes glittered impishly. 

That was it. Tifa opened her mouth to yell out some obscenity, but felt a leather-clad hand clamp itself across her lips. "Okay, that's enough bitchin'" Cid barked, retracting his hand from Tifa's open mouth and placing the grand Venus Gospel before him like some boundary marker. "Gray, listen up and listen good; we ain't giving Juventa up without a fight. We ain't giving shit up without a fight. So you best get your ass outta here…" jabbing the Venus Gospel against the cobbles for maximum impact "…or you step the hell up. Got that?"

Gray seemed a little surprised. "Wow, those are pretty harsh words coming from such an old man. Pension late again? That's okay; I sympathise _totally_"

Cid grimaced, bit his lip, kept his temper "Keep talking like that, lady, and I swear to Shiva I'm gonna send a blast of Ultima straight into your van. That'd fuck you up, wouldn't it?"

A tut. "But you wouldn't want to be responsible for the deaths of three poor innocents, would you now Grandpa?" she gestured to the van with one hand, "Adam Greenwood, aged 23 years, ranked B, one of the late Shawn McLeary's bodyguards. Only he wasn't a very good bodyguard, really" she clucked her tongue absently, apparently forgetting what it was that she was saying. "Ah, yes. Charlie Manning, aged 21 years, security officer back at the compound. Again, not very good at his job, I'm afraid. He's brought his lady friend along for the ride…Rebekah Corgan, aged 21 years, ranked C, general soldier, totally unremarkable really. All three are totally dispensable. But I get the feeling that nobody here really wants to be responsible for their deaths…" a brief smile at the assembled militia, one that said _'you know I'm making sense'_

"What makes you so sure of that?" Cid challenged, the Venus Gospel standing before him, glimmering proudly in the almost reddish light of sunrise. "How do you know we give a shit about whoever and whatsit?"

"The very fact that you haven't already decimated my van with your 'Ultima' spell speaks volumes to me," she answered smartly, and Cid suddenly realised she had done more than call his bluff; she had _known_. She had somehow known that the preservation of those three anonymous lives held some absurd value to them. She had captured them, safe in the knowledge that AVALANCHE were too indebted to their morals to mow down her hostages. How simple would it be to blast the van, kill her Goddess (at Shinoda's great expense, but at the world's great gain) and those three nobodies, be left with only the flesh and the blood? Yet to do that would, for some fucked-up reason beyond anyone's comprehension, be completely abhorrent to everyone. Well, perhaps Cait Sith and the Turks had slightly different moral leanings, but an alliance was an alliance, and this alliance had no intention of killing four for the sake of one.

It was then that the blue van belonging to Shinoda Brynne pulled up. Just behind the black van, noticeably smaller, slightly the worse for wear in the wake of their battle. No sooner had it ground to a halt than Jo, cradling a barely recognisable Scarlett to her chest, jumped out, flanked by Reno. He whispered something to her, and they set out in a dash across the pending battlefield. He ran halfway with her, stopped where the others had formed their roadblock, watched her departing form as she set out for the aircraft hangar hidden beneath the iron skeleton. Then he turned to face Gray.

Slowly, almost brashly, Vincent made his unhurried way to the front line, swinging his Buntline down by his thigh in an infuriatingly casual way. And then Shinoda, possibly the most frightened out of the three…the one of them who stood to lose the most. He didn't join the swelling ranks. Instead, he stopped a few inches away from Gray. He stared down at her, towering over her, a fearful Goliath brought almost to his great knees by a smirking David. 

"Loki" he said, low voice almost inaudible "Loki, please. Not my daughter"

"Shinoda" she replied, voice taking on a lecturing air, placing her hands on her hips as if she had told him a thousand times before "Do you remember Fergal Murdoc's plans for Korei?" 

"Of course I do"

"And what would you rather…her death, or her propulsion towards immortality?"

"I would rather she be returned to me, so I can make up the lost years and raise her the way I always intended her to be raised"

"Oh?" Gray eyed him with some contempt "So you want to subdue the powers that rightfully belonged to her? Were you going to teach her that telepathy was a dirty thing?"

"I was going to teach her to use her gifts for the better" Shinoda replied coldly. He was past the stage of losing his temper, past the stage of breaking down. He was at that weary point of near acceptance, not quite ready to give up though everything seemed so utterly futile. "Please, Loki. There's no need to use her. You have whole armies to fight for you. You have thousands of creatures at your disposal. Why do need Korei…?"

"Because she is a Goddess" Gray replied, almost salivating at the thought "And she is worth every single one of those soldiers. I need nothing more than her"

"Then why do you need Juvi?" This time it was Tye that stepped forward. Tye, teller of jokes and soother of boggles. His expression was hard, eyes cold, stance unyielding. "If you have all you need, why do you want to take her away too?"

Gray shrugged, and at that moment in time Tye wanted nothing more than to rip out her heart and feed it to her each valve at a time. "I don't really know. Fun, I suppose"

"Fucking fun?" Tye's tone was pure hatred peppered with the seeds of disbelief "You fucking bitch! How can you stand there and…and…laugh!?" his eyes narrowed to darkened slits as Gray tipped her head back in merry laughter, blonde hair spilling over her shoulder in a knotted mess. His bunched fists began trembling in his fury and it took him all the self-control he could muster to keep from lashing out. Swallowing hard and almost choking on a shuddering breath, he turned to Cloud and Cid. "Don't wait around" he said, voice low and dangerous. "Fucking kill her. Do it now"

"But I haven't finished my negotiations yet, Tye" Gray called, almost sadly "Stick around. Who knows? Maybe I can offer something that might change even _your_ mind"

"Nothing will change my mind" Tye replied unfalteringly.

"Then listen to me: It doesn't have to be so…cold, this process. Come with me, Tye. You and Juvi. Until this baby is born, you will live a life of luxury…I mean it, Tye, don't give me that look…" she fixed Tye with a frighteningly pally smile for a few moments, a coaxing smile "We at the Compound will make your lives comfortable and safe. And then when the child is born, we will take it away and you'll be free. You will never, ever hear from us again. Ever. And that's my promise to you."

Tye scowled "You're lying"

Gray softened her gaze "Look my in the eye and say that"

Tye looked. And recoiled. She wasn't lying. All she wanted was the child…how hard could it be, to give up the baby (which, he reminded himself, was probably only half-human) a baby that neither he nor Juvi were ready for…he shook his head, suddenly utterly disgusted with himself. No way. Not after all this….he wouldn't give in, no matter how much effort it saved. 

The group behind him said nothing. When all was said and done, Tye was the man with everything to lose…they were fighting for him first and foremost, no matter their own personal anger and hatred for Gray. And if Tye wanted to step forward and take the easy way out, who were they to argue? Each one of them had a different reason; each one of them had a different reply for Gray. But Tye was the one who had to answer. Shuffling their feet and cracking their knuckles like school kids anxious for the fight between Joe the Jock and Larry the Underdog to begin…readying their weapons, muscles tensed and ready to go, adrenaline rushing through their veins like electricity.

Tye looked up, opened his mouth.

"Go fuck yourself" he replied slowly, stressing each word in cold monotone.

A smirk. "Fine. That's fine, Tye, because I didn't really need your confirmation on the matter. I just felt charitable. Either way, Juvi will be mine. You know, it would be so much kinder for you to just come along quietly…after all, once the baby is born, what good is Juvi to me? Who's to say that I won't just throw her away? Maybe lock her in a room and see how long it takes her to waste away. Maybe she'll starve to death. Maybe she'll just go mad and claw her eyes out. Maybe…"

"Fucking shut up!" Tye screamed, shocking even Gray a little. His eyes were a burning mass of blue flame; face pale except for two livid spots of furious red above his cheekbones "Fucking shut up! You're a fucking whore! Dirty bitch!"

"Carry on, Tye" she nodded, infuriatingly calm and cocky. She stepped forward a little, boots slipping a little on the cobbles. "I like this. I like it when people get feisty. What am I again? Say it so I can hear it, Tye" she licked her lips and leaned forward so her face was inches from Tye's, grinning in frustrating self-satisfaction.

"You're a fucking dead woman," he growled, and all of a sudden his fist flew out and caught her straight in the side of the mouth. Her head snapped viciously to the side and a splatter of blood flew out, landing somewhere on the cobbles. She stumbled; almost fell to the floor, caught herself just as her buckling knees hit the ground. One hand automatically pressed itself against her shattered jaw, trying in vain to suppress the agony shooting up past her eyes and piercing her sinuses, her brain. "Fuck!" she tried to scream but what came out was a garbled exclamation somewhere between a shriek and a drawn-out sob. She groped frantically at the air like a drowning woman "Ohfuck!"

"Like it?" Now Tye couldn't help himself; his boot drove itself into Gray's emaciated stomach, sending her to her knees with a tearful gasp. She clawed at the cobbles desperately struggling for breath, every inhalation felt like she was breathing in hot needles. Blood trickled from her ruptured jaw. Something inside her had snapped, had broken off, was poking sickeningly at the soft stuff of her left lung. She looked up at Tye, eyes wide and watery, mouth wide open, gasping like a fish out of water. There was nothing in his eyes, no anger, no remorse, just the blankness of automated rage. He drew his foot back again; ready to strike, aiming for the dead centre of her protruding sternum. 

"Tye--" Yuffie leapt forward, placed both hands gently on his shoulders. He jumped a little, foot halting mid-kick. The dead glaze across his eyes shattered like glass, melted, became a film of tears as he suddenly came to his senses. For a moment it looked like he might lash out anyway. Then he drew back his foot, straightened out, looked down at Gray, tears dribbling down his cheeks.

Gray gazed up at him with the terrified eyes of a child in a thunderstorm, laying in a foetal position on the wet cobbles. One shaking arm rested across her forehead in a pathetic attempt to shield his next blow. Her jaw was a swollen mass of purple bruise and reddish-brown blood, almost as ugly as the mangled mess of her nose. The other arm barred her stomach, tucked behind her knees. She no longer looked like a crazed, homicidal lunatic…just a frightened girl with ideas way above her station. But they all knew that, just as spring preceded summer, Gray wasn't through yet. Scared and hurting as she was, it wasn't over by any stretch of the imagination.

"Why…why did you stop me?" Tye asked breathlessly, bewildered by Yuffie's actions. The girl regarded him with wide grey eyes, mouth a solemn line set in the olive beauty of her face. 

"Don't kill unless you need to" she answered. "My dad taught me that before he taught me anything else"

"But…look…morals are all well and good but she's…she's fuckin' pure evil, Yuffie, surely you can see that?" Tye let his gaze fall upon the curled up ball on the floor, sadistic Loki Gray reduced to a shuddering mess. He had done that, with his own hands and feet, reduced her to this…and the worst part was, he _liked_ it. There was something absolutely delicious in seeing the woman who was single-handedly responsible for fucking up his life writhing in agony at his feet. Fuck morality…she needed to _go_.

"Cloud…" he said, turning to the spiky-haired leader. He took a hesitant step towards him, resplendent in full SOLDIER garb, orbs of multi-coloured Materia glimmering obscenely in the light, set into the blade of the breathtakingly huge Ultimate Weapon. Somehow, he commanded respect. Somehow Tye felt inferior and a little blasphemous. Thankfully, Cloud, regarding him all the while with analytical eyes, nodded him on. 

"I can understand your ethics and totally respect them, but fucking hell Cloud, we can't just leave her! How do we know what she's got planned? No way is she nuts enough to have come all this way as a one-woman army…!"

"We do this properly, Tye" Cloud replied coolly. Crossing over to where Gray still lay foetally on the floor, he nudged her with the tip of his boot as if she were a particularly disgusting article. 

"Get up, you sick bitch," he told her. "Get up and fucking finish this"

Still trembling, Gray pressed both hands against the slick cobbles and pushed her bony frame up off the floor. She got first to her knees, then to her mutinous feet, silent, shaking, eyes wide and hurt, bleeding profusely from the deep slit in her lip where Tye had clocked her.

"You have a choice: Walk away and never, ever come back. Or…I won't be held responsible for your end. You understand me, don't you?"

Gray said nothing. Her gaze was completely dead and blank, eyes like those of a stuffed bear.

"Gray, are you listening to me?"

Still nothing. Her eyes were fixed on some nonexistent point in the far distance, her mind apparently absent. Only her mouth, trembling furiously, gave indication to any sort of life. 

"Gray…"

A shrill yell, a creak of shattered bone. Gray closed her eyes and yelled, two syllables mashed into one, a distorted command. _"Awee!"_

And then a sudden rush of cold air, bitter winter winds, so strong that a few of them actually lost their footing and fell back. Those who didn't stepped back anyway, away from the gathering column of filthy black that now stood before Gray, sucking all the soot and filth from miles around like a stationary cyclone. It gathered like dust, like a pillar of dirt, growing rapidly in size and girth until an eye-scorching burst of pure white light peeled the layers of filth like dead skin, dropping to the ground, a discarded chrysalis for the beast within.

And a beast it was; curled up inside the pillar of light like a sleeping butterfly, something that might have once been a twelve-year-old girl…Her folded wings were black, leathery, trimmed with flayed matter and dripping black soot, hair a mess of vine-like tangles and thick coils, facial skin pale and sickly and sooty black elsewhere. From her closed mouth protruded two white spears of enamel, stretching down past her chin. Her eyes were closed, hands crossed over her chest, legs crossed as she somehow levitated above the floor, the most petite demon, evil trapped in the body of a child. How she had come to be here, in this repellent state was beyond them all, beyond their caring; it was what she could _do_ in this state that held the most concern.

"Awee…Awee…" Gray's voice was breathy, words mashed and nigh on incomprehensible, slobbering like a rabid animal "Awee, eh en, isiss eh en!"

_'The end…this is the end'_ in her mind, Yuffie heard the mangled command as if it had been her own. _'She means to kill us. Fucking hell, it's all over'_

The eyes of the creature that, in some other world, at some other time might have been called Korei snapped open. Two black dots of burnt-out coal, cold and lifeless. Her wings unfolded with a slither, creaking as, for the very first time, they offered themselves to the cold sea air. Her short legs unfolded too, stretching beneath her, not quite touching the floor. For a moment it was still, oh so still, a sort of ethereal calm like the eyes of a hurricane. Then the creature pinwheeled up, propelled by those great leathery wings, spiralling up into the sky where it stopped, held up with systematic flaps of its wings, gazing blankly down, ready to strike.

"FINISH!" Gray screamed, stumbling back as she jabbed her finger at the assembly, hitting the bonnet of the van like a drunkard. She drew in a shrieking breath, trying desperately to fill her aching lungs, hands shaking uncontrollably as they scrabbled against the bonnet for some sort of grip. She could feel her fingers tearing, her nails splintering into her skin. Casting her watering eyes up at her Goddess, she licked the blood from her lips and managed to twist her shattered jaw into a grotesque smile.

"This is it…give it all you have…!" Cloud yelled, drawing the behemoth sword from his back and holding it before him, steady in his stance. It was the winged creature that attacked first; a huge black orb began gathering before the outstretched palms, gathering like the pillar of dirt. And then, with tremendous velocity, the black bullet cannonballed down towards the stationary Cloud. He leapt out of the way just as it crashed to earth, rendering the cobbles beneath nothing more than charred mush. _'It melts stone_' Cloud noted with clinical coldness. _'What power…'_

"Fuck…" Cid muttered. He was almost knocked to his feet as Yuffie bolted past him, flinging the huge pinwheel of her Conformer up at the winged beast. It spiralled into the sky, a wildly spinning disc of blood red, clipping its wing with a brief spray of blood. It swerved sharply as it zipped back to earth. The thing let out a shrill, wounded cry and turned its dead gaze towards the girl who had dared to hurt it. Another ball of fizzing, oily black, this time gathering faster and sucking up dirt and sky at amazing speed…still stationary, Yuffie could but stare at the object as it gathered, grew fat, gorged, all in a split second, then hurtled towards her.

From the back of the congregation, Reno watched the scene as it unfolded in cold, stomach-churning slow motion…the thick black sky parasite, rocketing towards the small and suddenly very frightened girl, holding the Conformer above her lowered head in a desperate effort to save herself. And, breaking through the horrified, paralysed twin sentinels of Barret and Tye, he lunged forward, wrapped both arms around her waist and pulled as hard as he could. A brief, lungless yelp of pain from Yuffie as she was brought down heavily onto the stone, fall cushioned somewhat by Reno's own body. And as they hit the floor with an undignified thump, so did the frantic black sphere. It hit the floor with more velocity and force than the first; red-black sparks spat into the air like malevolent fireworks. The ground beneath wasn't just a mass of charred mush; this time it was alive with rivers of molten rock, boiling and bubbling like a cauldron. That orb hadn't been designed to kill, rather render its victim to a charred, burning, melting mess. It was designed to torture. 

Yuffie lifted her head, squinting through a visual haze of hurt and sunrise. She lay pentacled out on the floor, a sore and disoriented starfish, forehead scraped and body bruised but otherwise unhurt. Beneath her, a warm, pulsing mass of flesh and cotton shifted and she almost leapt back.

"…Your fucking stupid code of fucking honour!" Tye was screaming, presumably at Cloud. She heard his shrill cry before anything came into focus and he was still screaming when her eyes settled upon Reno's face, calm and relaxed in spite of his near loss.

"You all right?" he asked softly, pushing himself into a sitting position and easing her up onto her knees. 

"I'm fine, thanks to you," she answered, and for once in her life the ninja girl sounded genuinely grateful. A little blood trickled down the side of her head where she and the floor had made rough contact. 

Reno smiled at her. For the most ephemeral of moments there was nothing else. The adrenaline of battle, the fear of death and the nauseating sense of excitement carried with it were gone for that moment, a moment so poorly imitated by countless films, a literary cliché that seemed and felt so real. And then Tye's savage yell, the sharp recoil of open palm against face, then silence. They both turned.

"I don't give a fuck!" Cid yelled, drawing his hand back in and eyeing Tye with cold ferocity. "Just shut up and deal with it! You think griping is gonna help us?"

Tye said nothing. His eyes were wide, brimming, frightened. He was no longer a raging, angry man. He was nothing more than a scared boy. 

"Stand away. I'm summoning" Cid turned his back on the boy, who, along with the rest of the front row contingent, took a few steps back. 

Standing alone, Cid felt a slight pang of fear and a rush of exhilaration. He always felt that way whilst summoning. It was as if he was the only warrior on the battlefield, standing against this prodigious enemy. Just Cid versus the Goddess. And, in a mid-life crisis way, it made him feel ridiculously heroic. 

Grasping the slippery orb with his left hand, he brought it before him. The glassy stone was cool against his bare palms, the notches and smooth furrows tagging his callused skin. He saw in the glass the tiny effigy of the pig god Kjata, locked eyes with it, drew the rush of mental energy in like a breath. A sudden internal burst, a not entirely unpleasant rupture as the pig god answered his summon, using his physicality to morph and expand from tiny trapped effigy to all-consuming elemental god. 

As the huddled band of warriors watched, the creature suddenly burst into life as if ripping through thin air. The tips of its great ears were level with the face of the winged beast, the tapered ends of the tusks as thick as Barret's arm. With a thunderous, ear-splitting screech it vomited a ball of blazing flame into the sky, showering the ground with a blitz of fireballs, shooting down past the creature, narrowly missing the stupefied Gray and her stationary van. With searing intensity, blazing red became cold, almost solid white streaks of forked, jagged lightning. Crashing down around the winged creature, forming a serrated bone cage around it, the forked tongues of electricity lapping at the scaly skin. Inside, paralysed, the creature could do nothing but watch…lightning gave way to crystalline pellets of ice, smashing the bars of the lightning cage and unleashing their anger. The sickening thud of cold stone against skin filled the darkened skies as the airborne beast was bombarded with ice bullets. It withdrew into itself, uttering a shrill, echoing cry as its wings folded in around its soft underbelly, sinking slowly towards the ground like a dying balloon. Then the barrage ended. Kjata stepped back, solid for a moment then fading before their eyes, nothing more than an elaborate illusion.

For the Korei-thing, the wounds left behind were far from illusory. Great bruised pockmarks littered the toughened outer wing, glowering in the flesh like black rubella as it once again ascended. The stink of burnt flesh came off it in thick, nauseating waves and scraps of deadened matter littered the floor beneath it. It was wounded, but still had enough strength to kill. 

Scanning them with beady black eyes, it stretched its bruised wings, fending off a mistimed handgun bullet from a panicked Elena. Those without long-range capabilities were bound to Materia; only Yuffie, Vincent, Barret and the Turks were capable of any sort of damage…and then only Vincent and the hide-piercing Death Penalty rifle could cause any considerable harm. Magic was the only option, yet the powerful magic they needed was so draining…

It was Tifa who made the next move. Sensing within herself that the beast was about to make its next potentially deadly move, she snapped her fist out and blasted a quick, low-power Bolt 2 spell. Anything more powerful would have taken too long; anything less would have had a pitiful effect. Evanescent bolts of silver-grey rained down upon the beast for a second or two, creeping beneath the skin with a deadened flicker, assaulting the nerves and stopping it in its tracks. The embryonic beginnings of a flesh-eating orb spluttered and died in its hands, a black flame guttering against a greying wick. Enough of a distraction for Vincent to take careful aim, the spot between shoulder blade and wing, fire off a bullet. It hit the beast hard, tearing apart the wing joint in a sickly spray of dark blood and bone chips, sending it spiralling down to the ground like a dead game bird. For a moment it seemed that maybe, just maybe, the creature _was_ dead. Maybe it was _game over_ already. And then it rose, torn wing bloody and useless behind it, trailing forlornly, the membranes hanging from a twisted, shattered frame. Standing on thin, reptilian legs, tipped with bare, clawed feet. 

Vincent cocked the trigger back, held the barrel before him, aiming straight at the pulsing heart. As if daring him, the thing held its arms open. Its belly was soft, pale, palpitating. The bullet would surely have killed it…if Vincent had had the time to shoot. But even the gunslingers unnatural reflexes and razor-sharp mind weren't prepared for what happened next…

_A/N Mwahaha! You'll just have to wait for Part Two, won't you? I'm sorry for this act of wanton cruelty but it had to be done. The chapter is already stretching out at eleven pages and it's only half done. Plus, I think there were a few people going crazy with withdrawal, so…hope you enjoyed, and I hope you enjoy the finale. Shoot me a review and I promise you Reffieness and other such enjoyable things…give me a few ideas the finale and I'll see if I can squeeze a few of them in! _

_Thanks for reading…be patient, now…there's only a little way left…_

_La paz, el amor, y la empatia_

_~TIO_

_(TioRankP@hotmail.com)_

_Roll on Chapter 38: The Final Hour (Part Two)_


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